HE SPARKS 
 
 LIBRARY. 
 
 [AMERICA.] 
 Colleeted. by 
 
 JARED SPARKS, LL. D., 
 
 President of Harvard College. 
 
 Purchased by the Cornell University, 
 
 1872. 
 
Cornell Unlvarsity Library 
 BX9869.K5 F94 
 
 Tribute to Thomas Starr King By Richard 
 
 2 192^ 029 480 385 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tile Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029480385 
 
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 THOMAS STARK KING. 
 
A TRIBUTE 
 
 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 RICHAED FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 ^• 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 TICKNOK AND FIELDS. 
 
 1865. 
 
sintered, according to Act of Congress, ia the yeax 186it, by 
 
 KICHARD FROTHINGHAM, 
 
 ^ the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 I 
 
 ELECTBOTYTED AND PRINTED BT JOHN WILSON AND SOW, 
 No. 5, Water Street. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Inner Natuke 7 
 
 The Eaelt Consechation 17 
 
 The Pkepakation 37 
 
 Faith and Pjilosopht in Youth 57 
 
 The Beginnino of his Ministkt ..... .77 
 
 Eleven Teaes of his Ministkt 106 
 
 A Month or Intbbtai. . 155 
 
 FouE Tears in California 173 
 
 The Closing Scene 217 
 
 Appendix 233 
 
THE INNER NATUEE. 
 
 ilO-DAY Is the fourth of March : sad 
 news will go over the wires to-day." 
 Thus spoke Thomas Stakb King, 
 at San Francisco, at about eight o'clock in the 
 morning; and, a few minutes later, he was 
 dead. As the intelligence spread through the 
 city, there was sorrow on all faces. Unusual 
 stillness was in the marts of trade. Public 
 business was suspended. The courts and the 
 Legislature were adjourned. The national flag 
 was everywhere set at half-mast. The city was 
 in mourning. "A Christian minister," — it 
 was said from the bench, — "a Christian pa- 
 triot, has fallen. Tears will fall for him in the 
 homes of poverty and distress ; they will dim 
 
 |7] 
 
8 TEOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 the eyes of brave soldiers from the Mississippi 
 to the Potomac ; and good men and true men 
 all over our land, made better and truer by his 
 great, brave, and lucid thoughts and his burn- 
 ing eloquence, wiU weep for him as for a 
 brother."* And this was seen as the tidings 
 of the calamity went over the wires and through 
 the land. It expressed the general sense of 
 a great public loss, and the wide feeling that 
 one of uncommon work and gifts had gone to 
 his reward. A proud New -England inspira- 
 tion lifted the thought of the Pacific mourners 
 to a view of the cheering side of the Provi- 
 dence, in words of solemn joy and triumph : — 
 
 " Mingle, bells ! along the Western slope, 
 With your deep toll a sound of faith and hope ; 
 Wave cheerily still, banner! half-way down, 
 From thousand-masted bay and steepled town ; 
 Let the strong organ with its loftiest swell 
 Lift the proud sorrow of the land, and tell 
 That the brave sower saw his ripened grain." 
 
 The beauty of Israel had fallen on the high 
 places. For him, however, there could be no 
 mourning. The early vow had been faithfully 
 
 * Judge Blake, of San Francisco. 
 
THE INNER NATURE. 9 
 
 kept. The good fight had been fought. The 
 servant, "happy, trustful, resigned," had risen 
 in sublime triumph to meet the Master. 
 
 The closing scene made the crowning of a 
 beautiful life, on which the old and the young, 
 the unlettered and the learned, may find it. 
 useful to ponder. It has called forth heartfelt 
 tributes. It is a theme worthy to be handled 
 by genius and learning. When the time comes 
 for the calm and complete record, it will need 
 but a narrative of high aims, heroic struggles, 
 and solid triumphs, to make a thing of joy for 
 ever. Being dead, Starr King still speaks. 
 As he moved along on the earth, practising 
 the virtues and achieving the work that wdl 
 keep his memory green, his immediate object 
 was very simple. He strove tp keep himself 
 unspotted. He aimed for the Christian heights. 
 He consecrated, even in youth, the powers with 
 which the Almighty had endowed him, to the 
 good of his fellow- men. He early grasped 
 "a glorious faith and a noble philosophy," 
 which were to him inspiration and protection. 
 This morning consecration, with the inner 
 
10 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 spring of fidelity to duty working under every 
 outward phase and ever triumphant, is the key 
 of this remarkable life. 
 
 Thomas Staer King was a son of Thomas 
 . Farrington King, of English descent, and of 
 Susan Starr, of German descent. Her father's 
 name was Thomas Starr. Both families resided 
 in the city of New York. The father of Stan- 
 was rather above the medium height, quick and 
 vivacious in his movements, full of humor, 
 with a sympathetic nature, uncommon imitative 
 powers, noble generosity of soul, and of fine 
 social qualities. He was a'Universalist clergy- 
 man ; and, much as he loved the order in the 
 fellowship of which he passed his life, his theo- 
 logical views widened out beyond the bounds 
 of sect or creed. In the classification of the 
 day, he sympathized with the Eestorationists. 
 He was distinguished for a fervent and apostolic 
 delivery, and rendered hymns with marked 
 unction and effect. The Starr Family have 
 manifested uncommon intellectual power ; and, 
 whatever there may be in this case of inherited 
 
THE INNER NATURE. 11 
 
 influence, the subject of this tribute may be said 
 to have had from his father his geniality, and 
 from his mother his intellectual traits. 
 
 Starr, as he was familiarly called, was bom 
 in the city of New York, Dec. 17, 1824. His 
 father was preaching on a circuit in Connec- 
 ticut, and lived in Norwalk; and his mother 
 was then on a visit to her family. When about 
 five weeks old, the mother, with the child, 
 returned to Norwalk. In the following spring, 
 the father settled in Hudson, N. Y. , where, 
 located amidst the scenery of this noble river, 
 the family remained four years. The pastor 
 then (1828), leaving a wide circle of friends, 
 removed to Portsmouth, N. H. , to take the 
 charge of a larger society; where Starr spent 
 the next six years of his boyhood, inhaling 
 New England's hardy influences. TVThile here, 
 he was sent to a private school kept by Mr. 
 Harris, where, beside learning the rudiments 
 of knowledge, he became, for one of his age, 
 a good Latin and French scholar; and the 
 pupil ever spoke in grateful terms of good 
 Master Harris's faithful drilling in the Latin 
 
12 THOMAB 8TABR KING. 
 
 Grammar. "Starr, what are you going to 
 make?" a clergyman one day asked him while 
 living here ; and the quick-spoken reply was, 
 "Don't know : something prptty smart." An- 
 other thing is told of him of a different cast. 
 At the dinner-table, when his father asked the 
 customary blessing, Starr habitually sat with 
 folded hands and closed eyes ; and at the end 
 said, "Amen." While living at Hudson, he, 
 vsdth other children, was dining at the table of 
 an Episcopal clergyman, who was so struck 
 with this manner and response, that he spoke 
 of it to the mother. This practice was con- 
 tinued at Portsmouth. "Starr," his mother 
 says, "for years always said 'Amen' at grace." 
 Because this was taken up of his own accord, 
 and grew into a habit, it may be looked upon 
 as an unconscious reaching forth of the inner 
 nature to the Spirit. The child, like Samuel 
 of old, "grew on, and was in favor with the 
 Lord, and also with men." 
 
 The father, in 1835, removed to Charles- 
 town, Mass., to be the pastor of the large 
 Universalist society there. Starr was sent to 
 
THE INNER NATURE. 13 
 
 the Blinker-hill Grammar School, of which Mr. 
 William D. Swan, recently a member of the 
 Massachusetts Senate, was the principal, who 
 well recollects the fire of his declamation of 
 the passage beginning, " Sink or swim, live or 
 die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my 
 heart to this vote" for independence, which 
 Daniel Webster put into the mouth of John 
 Adams. On a change of residence, Starr was 
 sent to the' Winthrop School, of which Mr. 
 Joshua Bates was the principal. There being 
 no high school in the town, the committee 
 made an arrangement with Mr. Bates to 
 attend, out of school -hours, to a class who 
 were fitting for college ; and Starr was one of 
 this class. His teacher writes, "I well remem- 
 ber the first entrance of that interesting boy, 
 Thomas Starr King, under my charge; his 
 gentleness of manner, his beaming eye, his 
 expressive face. His mind grasped, and com- 
 prehended with wonderfid acumen, every sub- 
 ject presented to his consideration." As a 
 scholar, he took the foremost rank in his class. 
 His recitations conveyed the impression of 
 
14 THOMAS STASR KING. 
 
 maturity far beyond his years. His compo- 
 sitions evinced great vigor of thought, and 
 method of treatment ; and one of them, on 
 the character of Washington, first written in 
 English, and then translated into Latin, was 
 exhibited by his teacher to two distinguished 
 scholars, who pronounced it to be a remarkable 
 production for one so young. His declamation 
 was impressive and graceful. " The chief and 
 distinguishing characteristic," Mr. Bates says, 
 "of his school-life, consisted in his sincerity, 
 purity of heart, honesty of purpose, and uni- 
 form gentlemanly deportment. I can call to 
 remembrance no act or word in his school-days 
 to censure or disapprove. Always cheerful, 
 industrious, and conscientious, he left no duty 
 unperformed, but lived up to all the require- 
 ments of the school-room with the most scru- 
 pulous exactness." 
 
 While Starr was reading Virgil and Cicero, 
 and earning this tribute, his father was labor- 
 ing under a deep-seated disease, and was in 
 straitened pecuniary circumstances. Starr was 
 placed in a dry- goods store in Charlestown 
 
THE INNER NATURE. 15 
 
 (an arrangement designed to be but tempo- 
 rary), where, among other duties, he kept the 
 books. He had taken final leave of school. 
 He was now a bright-eyed, vivacious, lovable 
 lad, of slender form, golden hair, ruddy com- 
 plexion, wioning ways, and of quick perception ; 
 uncommonly mirthful, and as fond of books 
 as he was of fun ; in a word, having the usual 
 marks of a precocious youth, without erratic or 
 roving ways. He was a regular attendant at 
 the Sunday school. The father saw, with all 
 a parent's pride, the unfolding powers of his 
 gifted son, and designed for him a collegiate 
 course. Thus early Starr looked forward to be 
 a minister of the gospel ; indeed, his mother 
 cannot recollect when he did not talk of it : so 
 that he grew up with this as his plan for life. 
 When he was about thirteen years of age, while 
 his father was on a visit to the West, he pre- 
 pared a sermon, which he sent to the editor of 
 the " Christian Freeman ; " and it appeared in 
 that paper. Starr did not, subsequently, look 
 back with satisfaction on this affair ; but it 
 js interesting as a manifestation of his inner 
 nature. 
 
16 TEOMAS 8TABR KINO. 
 
 " The life of Mr. King," one of his teachers 
 says, "from early youth to the grave, was 
 always sincere, pure, enthusiastic. His earnest 
 nature, his glorious aspirations, his love of the 
 true and the beautiful, his honesty of heart in 
 all he said and did, gave a peculiar charm to 
 his eventful life. He constantly exemplified, 
 in all he did, that principle and moral thought- 
 fulness were the controlling motives 'of ac- 
 tion."* 
 
 * A communication from Mr, Bates, on the school-da js of Mr. 
 King, will be found in the Appendix. 
 
THE EARLY CONSECRATION. 
 
 IHILE Starr was selling dry -goods, 
 a radiant death (September, 1839) 
 ended the sufferings and the labors of 
 his father, at the age of forty-two. A sponta- 
 neous closing of the places of business, an im- 
 pressive service in the church, a great funeral 
 procession, and a gathering of thousands on the 
 ancient burial-mound of Charlestown, testified 
 to the general affection and respect that bore 
 the sacred remains to their resting-place. On 
 the evening of the day of this scene, a young 
 man, a stranger in the place, occupied the 
 vacant pulpit, and discoursed on faith ; and, 
 as the church was draped in mourning for the 
 recent bereavement, •the lesson was enforced 
 2 [171 
 
18 THOMAS STAEB KINO. 
 
 with uncommon effect. The preacher followed 
 his manuscript until near the close of the ser- 
 mon, when, summoning the event of the hour 
 for illustration, he left his notes, and abandoned 
 himself to his theme ; when his deep, rich voice 
 was fuU of emotion, and had a pathos and 
 power which thrilled the great and breathless 
 assembly. It was eloquence; for it was in- 
 spiration of soul. The preacher was Edwin 
 H. Chapin, who became the successor of the 
 deceased pastor, and the close, life-long friend 
 of Thomas Starr King. 
 
 Starr remained in business pursuits ; and he 
 now began to appropriate his earnings to the 
 support of the family, which continued in a 
 greater or less degree through life. Thus, at 
 fifteen, he became the main stay of his mother, 
 and acted as a father to the five younger 
 children. Here is seen the practice of a filial 
 and fraternal piety, which, like a "gem of 
 purest ray serene," gilds his whole career. 
 He ever performed the duties required of him 
 in a prompt and faithful manner, aiming to do 
 his best, as though it was not a smaU matter, 
 
TEE EAELT CONSECRATION. 19 
 
 but an important thing, to be useful. None, 
 at the time, spoke more enthusiastically of his 
 intellectual gifts, and none to-day talk more 
 lovingly of his memory, than they wbo saw 
 him daily in business. He won the warm com- 
 mendation of his employer. He now bore a 
 leading part in the formation of a circle of 
 young men, of his own age, for mutual im- 
 provement by debates, declamations, and dra- 
 matic readings. Brutus was one of the parts 
 which he took. He was the life of this circle, 
 which continued for about two years ; and the 
 pr^aration for these exercises was a valuable 
 discipline. On its dissolution, he engaged, with 
 one of its members, in a written controversy, 
 on the condition of the wicked after death, 
 which was quite elaborate. "All the members 
 loved him," one of them says. He sought 
 books eagerly at this period ; his communings 
 were with the great masters of thought ; and, 
 as lie mused, the fire burned. Nor were his 
 musings aimless ; for his efforts were never 
 turned. from self-culture, nor his thoughts from 
 his mission. 
 
20 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 It happened that some of the members of 
 the Charlestown School Committee knew the 
 turn of Starr's mind and the circumstances of 
 his family ; and. by their influence he was ap- 
 pointed (Dec. 6, 1840) an assistant teacher in 
 the Bunker-Hill Grammar School, — which he 
 had first entered as a pupU. When he was 
 informed of this by members of the committee, 
 he said, with a modesty that was characteristic, 
 " I am sorry I am not better qualified for the 
 place." The principal of this school was Mr. 
 Benjamin F. Tweed, now one of the professors 
 of Tufts College, who became a life-long friend 
 of Starr. He entered upon his new vocation 
 with a liffht heart ; and he soon lived down 
 whatever doubts were felt in the community as 
 to the good judgment exercised by the School 
 Committee in the selection of a youth not six- 
 teen. 
 
 Starr was placed in charge of a separate 
 room. The quick-judging minds of the pupils 
 recognized the presence of superior intellect in 
 the clearness, simplicity, and readiness of the 
 explanations which the recitations required ; and 
 
THE EAMLY CONSECRATION. 21 
 
 they saw, that, young as he was, he brought 
 to his tasks abundant resources. He aimed to 
 do his work well. He aimed to do his best 
 here, as he had done in business. And a 
 beautiful outside reputation of boy-character 
 and fame came to his aid, as he was talked 
 about in families. It also went round among 
 the pupils that he had been the foremost scholar 
 in the Winthrop School, and that he knew seve- 
 ral languages. There was no bad conduct that 
 could be brought up against him to counteract 
 tlus. He had influence with his pupils, and 
 his fidelity to his task was rewarded with suc- 
 cess. "I have succeeded," he says, "as well 
 as I expected with the school ; but it is hard 
 work." 
 
 WhUe his calling now aided in his work of 
 discipline, his time out of school was mainly 
 devoted to study. He applied himself to the 
 languages. An instance, showing the steady 
 bent of his mind for the ministry, is seen in the 
 questions which he put to a phrenologist at this 
 time. The subject was now attracting unusual 
 attention, and it was characteristic in the young, 
 
22 THOMAS STARR KINO. 
 
 teacher to look into" it. A zealous disciple 
 (Mr. O. S. Fowler) was lecturing in Boston, 
 and examining heads, Starr called upon him, 
 was examined, and got a pamphlet containing 
 a description of the organs, with the size of 
 each of his own indicated in figures. In a 
 letter (May 27, 1841), he gives the result of 
 his examination, which may serve two turns, — 
 a contribution to science, and an illustration of 
 character : — 
 
 "About two or three weeks since, I called 
 on O. S. Fowler, the phrenologist 1 and such a 
 head as he gave me ! My stars ! After detail- 
 ing the size of the organs, he told me I should 
 enter a profession, and advised me by all means 
 to study for the law. He inferred that this 
 would be more congenial to my feelings, from 
 the smallness of conscientiousness and venera- 
 tion, and the preponderance of combativeness 
 and destructiveness, with large causality and 
 hope. As you may imagine, I did not consider 
 this announcement a very flattering compliment 
 to my moral faculties. I therefore popped the 
 question to the gentleman. How I was qualified 
 
THE EARLY CONSECRATION. 23 
 
 for the ministry ; — to which he replied by 
 laughing ! (think of it !) telling me that this 
 profession was out of the question, since I was 
 by no means serious ; and a lack of veneration 
 would be a sad defect. A gentleman who went 
 with me inquired as to the doctrine I would 
 preach. 'Why,' said Fowler, 'thorough-going 
 Universalist.' But he told me I would be a 
 very eloquent speaker, whatever profession I 
 might choose ; and assured me that I would 
 one day become an author ! He said there was 
 no doubt of that ; and finally advised me to 
 cultivate conscientiousness and bodily health ; 
 said I had a strong constitution, but thought it 
 would break when I arrived at the age of 
 twenty years." 
 
 This letter is signed "T. Starr King, the 
 eloquent speaker and (is to be) author." 
 
 At seventeen, he read metaphysics with the 
 avidity and relish with which most young peo- 
 ple read sensation novels; handling abstruse 
 problems as though it were but play to do it. 
 Professor Tweed, writing of this period of his 
 life, and of his love of metaphysics, says, " He 
 
24 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 would read what seemed to me an involved 
 and obscure passage from Kant with a ' What 
 do you think of that?' and when I began to 
 scowl, and express a doubt whether I perfectly 
 understood it, he would instantly state it in 
 terms which rendered it as clear as daylight. 
 The fact is, he was not a hard student : he 
 was incapable of hard study. The most ab- 
 struse problems furnished him only with intel- 
 lectual play. He had a natural affinity for 
 knowledge. Its acquisition was not labor, but 
 a delight." He loved to talk and to write on, 
 to most minds, the forbidding theme of meta- 
 physics. An illustration is seen in a long, off- 
 hand letter which he addressed (Nov. 3, 1842) 
 to a friend in New York, who informed him 
 of his purpose to enter upon a course of philo- 
 sophical reading. After a strain of humorous 
 matter, he gives an elaborate statement of the 
 different schools of philosophy : — 
 
 " If I can assist you in any manner during 
 your 'nights of prayer and devotion,' I shall be 
 most happy. I have just vanity enough, more- 
 over, to believe that I can. You intend com- 
 
THE EARLY CONSECBATION. 25 
 
 mencing a course of philosophical studies this 
 winter. That's right. Hurrah ! How funny to 
 write to you as a brother abstractionist ! "Well, 
 you should first make up your mind to what 
 course of philosophical reading you will devote 
 your time, moral or intellectual. However, 
 whether you engage In one or the other, you 
 will need some reading in metaphysics, and 
 will desire to become acquainted with aU the 
 possible forms of mental philosophy. There is 
 the sensual school, as it is termed, who contend 
 that all knowledge is derived solely through the 
 medium of the senses. They view mind as 
 merely material effect, derived from, dependent 
 upon, and dying with, the bodily organization. 
 This philosophy, for various and obvious rea- 
 sons, has been the first which has been evolved 
 from the philosophical genius of every people. 
 It appeared first in India ; and, after reflection 
 was awakened in Greece, was developed, prior 
 to any other system, by the Ionian school. You 
 will desire to become acquainted with the 
 writings and ideas of this school. It is the 
 philosophy of the atheists, but is also held 
 
26 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 ■by many Christians, who turn its keen edge by 
 the revelations of the Bible, relying on that 
 for proof of the soul's fiiture existence. In 
 modem times, it has been systematically de- 
 fended by the French atheists, who drew it 
 from the famous John Locke. You will proba- 
 bly need to be acquainted with his work on the 
 Human Understanding ; though you might as 
 well try to read a dictionary through for plea- 
 sure as his work. Among aU nations where 
 philosophy has been cultivated, you will find, 
 that in opposition to the sensualists, or philoso- 
 phers of sensation, there have arisen idealists. 
 Unsatisfied with the theory of the former as 
 to the origin of human knowledge, they have 
 shown that all knowledge is not and cannot be 
 derived from sensation and through the senses. 
 Man has many ideas, and those the most essential, 
 which the senses cannot reveal ; nay, without 
 which experience itself would be impossible. 
 Such a philosopher was Plato, the purest and 
 best idealist, perhaps, of any age. In modem 
 times, the idealism prevalent can be traced to 
 the great German, Kant, who, in his immortal 
 
THE EARLY CONSECBATION. 27 
 
 work, ' Critique of Pure Reason,' establishes ■ 
 beyond any question the impossibility of ex- 
 plainino- all knowledge by experience and sen- 
 sations, and even gives us the list of those 
 ideas which man obtains through some other 
 medium. This medium, he contends, is pure 
 reason. Sensation may furnish the grounds 
 of knowledge. It is by occasion of experience 
 that man knows ; but man does not derive 
 all knowledge from sensation and experience. 
 Reason itself is a primary source of ideas. 
 You will observe that the sensual school give 
 to reason only the power of drawing and fram- 
 ing new ideas from the stock already furnished 
 hj sensation. Kant and the idealists contend 
 that it (reason) gives new ones, which are not 
 contained in those of sensation, which the 
 senses cannot furnish. Reason reveals univer- 
 sal truths, propositions applicable to all times 
 and every possible condition ; while the senses 
 can only make us acquainted with what is now, 
 not with that which must be. The ' Critique of 
 Pure Reason ' of Kant has not been rendered 
 into any readable English version. All that, 
 
28 THOMAS 8TABB KING. 
 
 for the present, you may care to know of it, 
 may be found in the 'Psychology' of Cousia, 
 Henry's translation. Cousin is the most lumi- 
 nous metaphysical writer you can read. His 
 positions are clear ; his language not to be mis- 
 understood; his reasoning aeute, logical, con- 
 vincing. First of any other, I would advise 
 you to read his work. It is in refutation of 
 Locke and the sensual school^ and was the in- 
 strument, with his other lectures, of reforming 
 thoroughly the philosophical studies of France. 
 His important arguments are borrowed from 
 Kant, but clothed in a style far more simple 
 and interesting than that of the great abstrac- 
 tionist. The philosophy of Cousin, understood 
 as eclecticism, is now the philosophy of France 
 and of the greatest men in this country. 
 Brownson objects to some of his theories, but 
 not probably to any of his reasonings, in his 
 ' Psychology.' By a careful perusal of Cousia's 
 work, you wiU get a good knowledge of the 
 sensual school, its weak points, the best method 
 of refuting them, and a list of the ideas which 
 every human being has which cannot come from 
 
THE EARLY CONSECRATION. 29 
 
 the senses. The criticism on Locke's account 
 of the origin of space, time, the Infinite, &c. , 
 is the finest piece of logic I ever read. It will 
 bear to be rused and perused, as Father Eayner 
 says, and never weary you. Piatt probably 
 has it, or your library. There is also the scep- 
 tical school of philosophy. Its followers be- 
 lieve that nothing can be proved; nothing is 
 certain. Life is short, sense is difficult, intel- 
 lect is weak. They think nothing can be 
 proved, because we know not whether our fac- 
 ulties are veracious, and reveal things as they 
 are. Life may be one continual dream. We 
 are so constituted, that we are compelled to 
 think and believe as we do believe, without the 
 power of proving that our thoughts and knowl- 
 edge are real. The greatest expounder of the 
 doctrines of this school has been David Hume, 
 the Scotchman, in his ' Essays.' It was in refu- 
 tation of this work that Kant arose in his might. 
 The sceptical school is the legitimate conse- 
 quence of the sensual school, and has always 
 followed in its train. Thus Hume builds his 
 scepticism on the principles of Locke ; and, 
 
30 THOMAS STABB KING. 
 
 when Kant and Cousin demonstrated the false- 
 ness of the former, scepticism, of course, fell 
 with it. The fourth great school of philosophy 
 is the mystical school, a pretty fair exposition 
 of whose doctrines you may hear in every true- 
 blue Calvinistic sermon. For them, himian 
 reason is weak, delusive, deceptive. It is no 
 safe guide. Earth and its pleasures are all 
 vanity, human life a miserable routine, and 
 all action foUy. Hence they abandon them- 
 selves to pious contemplation ; endeavoring to 
 become lost, as it were, in the Deity, and 
 seeking truth in a contemplation of his essence 
 by a sort of inspiration. This philosophy is 
 founded oh a low view of man and his powers, 
 and will not be likely to triumph in these days 
 of steam-engines, Universalism, and theatres, 
 as the present prospects of pure Orthodoxy will 
 testify. Out from these great systems of intel- 
 lectual philosophy have sprung corresponding 
 theories of moral philosophy, a sketch of which, 
 as room fails me in this letter, I wiU give you 
 at some future time, if agreeable. I forgot to 
 say any thing to you of the Brownsonian system 
 
TEE EABLY CONSECRATION. 31 
 
 of philosophy, partly because I am not very 
 well acquainted with it, and partly because you 
 can become familiar with it through the ' Demo- 
 cratic Review.' I know not what to make of 
 his theory of subjective and objective life. It 
 seems to me that it is the old idea, that cir- 
 cumstances influence our character ; for circum- 
 stances would be classed by Brownson as the 
 objective. But it also seems to me that he 
 does not give sufficient power to the subjective, 
 or man. Man, no doubt, is influenced by cir- 
 cumstances ; that is, by society and existing 
 institutions. But man is not made by circum- 
 stances. He can re-act upon them, and govern 
 them somewhat. Otherwise, where is account- 
 ability? If man cannot govern circumstances, 
 if he is not free in a certain sense, why punish 
 him ? Charge his crimes or delinquencies to the 
 objective, not to him. lie is not accountable. 
 Reform him; strive to modify and improve 
 as much as possible the existing institutions of 
 their times. But how? How can there be a 
 reformer? If, as Brownson says, men and 
 their institutions are the objective for posterity. 
 
32 THOMAS STABB KINO. 
 
 and if this posterity are formed spiritually by 
 this objective, and cannot rise above it, every 
 poet, every reformer, every man greater than 
 his age, must be literally inspired. But who 
 can believe such a doctrine as this ? I prefer 
 to believe that the premises are too exclusive 
 to accepting the conclusions. Neither do I 
 see in Christ, as he describes him, all that he 
 contends is there. — But I will not torture you 
 any longer with this at present. Though we 
 can accept, with some modifications, his theory 
 of subjective and objective life, still Channing's 
 view of man to me is far more interesting and 
 more consistent. I prefer to believe that man 
 has within him 'elements of the Divinity,' 
 which can be called forth, and which, by being 
 developed, constitute man's progress and glory, 
 to accepting the doctrine, that man by nature is 
 alien from God, does not naturally aspire, and 
 must be first stirred and then led on by the 
 Divinity in all his progress. I prefer Chan- 
 ning's position, that human nature must be 
 assumed infallible somewhere, than to subscribe 
 to Brownson's notion, that man must not be- 
 
THE EARLY GONSECBATION. 33 
 
 lieve Christianity, because Christianity is in 
 liarmony with reason and his nature, but must 
 yield implicit faith to it for — I know not 
 what. 
 
 " Let me know how you prosper in philoso- 
 phy. Perhaps, in future letters, I will bore 
 you with some of the ideas of Plato. By the 
 way, Cousin advises all young students like us 
 to become acquainted with Grecian philosophy ; 
 a task to which I have been devoting myself 
 for some little time. A very common work you 
 can obtain, probably, called Enfield's ' Philoso- 
 phy.' It is merely a statement of 'the doctrines 
 of the different schools among the Greeks ; not 
 good for much, but fit to be read prior to a bet- 
 ter. Cousin, in his lectures (in French) , un- 
 translated, gives a good synopsis of the progress 
 of inquiry among them." 
 
 While reading about Grecian philosophy, a 
 letter, full of fun, in which there is hardly 
 a word about metaphysics, winds off thus : — 
 
 "As soon as I become fully acquainted with 
 the principles of the Eleatic school, I shall write 
 him [J. H. J . At present, I am perplexed with 
 
34 THOMAS STASH KINO. 
 
 a doubt whether there be an impossibility in an 
 original multiplicity of things, on the ground 
 that the non-being, as the separative of unity, 
 is not; or whether the multiplicity of a self- 
 developing vitality cannot be reconciled with 
 an all-governing unity, since the perfect cannot 
 be subject to change. With regard to Pytha- 
 goras, I have become convinced that an indi- 
 vidual number can only arise by a separation 
 from the mass of units which originally were 
 held together by the primal number ; and, as 
 this separation implies the existence of a void, 
 the determimate must logically become, by op- 
 position to the interval, the limit. You may 
 not be surprised to learn that I talk of writing 
 a book." 
 
 While thus early he could grasp and grow 
 on the profound problems, or could harmlessly 
 play with the nets and the nonsense, of meta- 
 physics, his spiritual side was strengthened and 
 developed by communion with religious natures. 
 Only those who heard him talk can teU what a 
 ministry to his spirit was the affluence of utter- 
 ance and companionship of his beloved pastor. 
 
TEE EAJRLY CONSECRATION. 35 
 
 He ever retained for Dr. Chapin a warm affec- 
 tion. On being called on, at a festival in 
 Faneuil HaU, to respond to a sentiment in 
 honor of absent friends, Mr. King thus re- 
 ferred to him : " ^Vhat can be said fitly, by any 
 single speaker, when we come to another name 
 that is in all your minds ? What can be said, 
 that is competent, of E. H. Chapin, — God 
 bless him ! Call upon the band to respond with 
 all its instruments, if you would do proper honor 
 to him, and to the feeling of this assembly for 
 him. Nay, sir, some great organ should be 
 wakened in answer to his name. Let a master 
 draw the diapason, and open the pedal of the 
 great leviathan of music, and he cannot let 
 loose such a thrUling surge of passion as has 
 swept this haU when Chapin has poured from 
 his breast stormy denunciations of injustice, and 
 fervid prophecies of fiiture good ; and then let 
 him draw the sweetest flute-stop, and he cannot 
 pour out melody so pleading and pathetic as the 
 Holy Spirit breathes through the tender, sunny, 
 and melting tones in which Chapin portrays 
 and illustrates the infinite love." 
 
36 THOMAS STAUB KING. 
 
 His letters now indicate Ms theological bias. 
 "I enjoyed," he writes, "a rich conversation 
 with Bro. Chapin on philosophy and religion." 
 Of one of his sermons, Starr says, "It was 
 devoted to an illustration of the difference be- 
 tween an atheistical and Christian reformer. 
 At the close, Channing was mentioned in a 
 touching and beautiful manlier." Starr was 
 a child of enthusiasm ; and his feelings as to 
 the great divine, then just departed, are seen in 
 the words, " Channing ! — all the eulogies that 
 have been pronounced on him throughout the 
 land cannot do justice to him." He also shared 
 with Ms pastor in his admiration of Martineau, 
 and would delight to point out and linger on 
 rich passages xa. his utterances. On his return 
 from visits to New York, he woidd talk in 
 glowing terms of the eloquence of Dr. Dewey. 
 He had a hospitable mind, and was as generous 
 in acknowledgments as he was eager in recep- 
 tivity. 
 
THE PEEPAEATION. 
 
 ilTAER'S real life may be said to have 
 been rather in his ideas, his feelings, 
 and his studies, than in outward things, 
 well as he discharged his daily duties, and much 
 as he enjoyed society. At eighteen, he began 
 the special preparation which he considered 
 essential in order to be a preacher of the 
 gospel. 
 
 While an assistant teacher in the Grammar 
 School, Starr proposed to a few members of 
 the Debating Association before named to attend 
 regularly the usual monthly Sunday-evening 
 lectures in town, and, without taking notes, to 
 write out as much of the sermon as each could 
 remember, and then compare each other's man- 
 
 [37] 
 
38 THOMAS STARR KINO. 
 
 uscripts. One of them fell into the proposal, 
 and, with Starr, continued the practice for an 
 entire winter. " Starr," he says, " used to get 
 by far the most of the sermon." Towards the 
 last, they procured the manuscript of one of 
 the sermons they had thus endeavored to write 
 out; and Starr had taken nearly the whole 
 of it. 
 
 His letters indicate his love of religious liter- 
 ature. His words on Channing, already cited, 
 show his estimate of this divine : he was familiar 
 with his utterances, and had imbibed their spir- 
 it ; indeed, he was ever quick to know things of 
 note in theology; and, as soon as they appeared, 
 he would have them in hand, either from the 
 choice storehouse of his pastor or from else- 
 where ; for neither Chapin nor Eang would 
 sleep without knowing the last word from a real 
 teacher. He now attended the lectures deliv- 
 ered by Professor James Walker, of Harvard 
 College, at the Lowell Institute. The lecturer 
 had been formerly the pastor of the Unitarian 
 Society in Charlestown twenty-one years ; but, 
 resigning this charge about the time Starr's 
 
TEE PREPASATION. 39 
 
 father died, he removed to Cambridge, and did 
 not meet Starr whUe he lived in Charlestown. 
 Starr's attendance on these lectures is termed 
 by Professor Tweed, who shared his confidential 
 counsels, an era in his life. 
 
 In a letter to his aunt in New York, Feb. 
 22, 1842, he refers, among other things, to 
 these lectures : — 
 
 " I am keeping yet at the same school, and 
 like as usual. There has been a strong effort 
 made this winter to set off that part of the town 
 above the Canal Bridge as a separate village, 
 to be called SomerviUe. Two very serious 
 evUs would result from this, which, if the town 
 takes seriously into account, would, no doubt, 
 determine them not to divide. In the first 
 
 place, we should lose Old as a citizen ; 
 
 and, secondly, an incalculable injury would be 
 experienced by the urchins around these parts, 
 in the loss of my services as teacher, since 
 they would no longer be needed, on account 
 of the smaU. number of pup-T\.s which would 
 be left, if the proposed separation should be 
 effected. 
 
40 THOMAS STABB KINQ. 
 
 "Eev. E. H. C. is doing a good business 
 yet. Society full. He has preached some 
 gospel sermons, lately, on the revivals of the 
 day. What are you New-Yorkers doing ia the 
 way of saving sotJs ? Oh ! if your benighted 
 region could have the saving influence of Bro. 
 Knapp for a season ! I know he often thinks 
 of his associates in New York ; for I heard him 
 say, not long ago, that, when he sees one of those 
 ladies who take pride in dress and show, he 
 always thinks of some of those fat oxen which 
 the butchers in New York trim up with ribbons, 
 and drive around the streets for people to gaze 
 at, and afterwards drive to the slaughter-yard, 
 and knock their brains out. So it is — said he 
 ■ — with these silly women. The Devil is now 
 driving them around, all dressed in finery, for 
 people to gaze at ; but, by and by, he'll scrape 
 them into hell to everlasting damnation ! Sell 
 thy jewels ! 
 
 "I have enjoyed a rich treat this season in 
 attending Dr. Walker's lectures on natural reli- 
 gion, before the Lowell Institute. It is our 
 Charlestown Dr. Walker. But he never spoke 
 
TEE PBEPABATION. 41 
 
 half so well as he has in delivering these lec- 
 tures. The Odeon was crowded during the 
 whole twelve nights. I took notes of them all. 
 So, one of these days, I may enlighten the 
 western people upon that subject. There was 
 such a demand for tickets, and such a scarcity, 
 that I had almost given up all hope of obtain- 
 ing one, when I received a letter of introduction 
 to the reverend doctor. So out I posted to 
 Cambridge, enjoyed a lively conversation with 
 the professor (which turned principally on the 
 degree of intellect of the oyster, whether it 
 reasoned d priori or d posteriori) , and obtained 
 two tickets for the course. I have also a ticket 
 to Professor Silliman's course on chemistry, 
 which commences this evening." 
 
 Before the conclusion of Dr. "Walker's lec- 
 tures, a vacancy occurred in the West Gram- 
 mar School of Medford, a town about three 
 miles from Charlestown; and Starr applied 
 for the place, which was the higher and in- 
 dependent one of principal. His youth and 
 youthful looks suggested doubts as to the expe- 
 diency of the selection. A dear friend of his 
 
42 THOMAS STAMR ^KINO. 
 
 father happened to be a member of the School 
 Committee of this town, — Eev. Hosea Ballon, 
 2d, who was the pastor of the Universalist 
 Society here, and became the first president of 
 Tufts College. He interested himself for the 
 applicant, and Starr was successfiil. After his 
 appointment (Nov. 25, 1842), the family re- 
 moved to Medford. Starr soon writes, "I am 
 very much pleased with the change, and delight- 
 ed with the Medford people;'' and he invited his 
 friends to view its rural beauties, cool retreats, 
 and shady bowers. 
 
 This change seemed to him and his friends 
 but the simple question of a wider field of labor 
 and larger means of support ; but, viewed in 
 the light of after-events, it looks more ■ like 
 Providence shaping his ends. Dr. Ballon was 
 of childlike simplicity of character, of varied 
 and profound learning, wise, good, and great ; 
 and, a few weeks after the appointment, he re- 
 marked to the writer of this tribute, that, while 
 Medford had gained a faithful and competent 
 teacher, he had found a rare and precious friend. 
 What love and confidence grew up . between 
 
THE PEEPAEATION. 43 
 
 these gifted and kindred souls ! and how inter- 
 esting it was to see them together ! One of 
 silver locks, rich in ancient and modern lore, — 
 the other of boyish face, athirst for knowledge, 
 and scaling the heights with the scholar's en- 
 thusiasm ; and both of wit that was quick, of 
 easy flow, elicited by the commonest things, 
 and, diamond-like, sharp and sparkling. Inti- 
 mate and sweet was their life-long communion ; 
 much in the quiet seclusion of the study, occu- 
 pied with great themes, and much among the 
 sublimity of the mountains, feeling the grand 
 inspiration of Nature ; for both were loving wor- 
 shippers at her shrine. Then their views of 
 Christ and Christianity were similar. Both 
 accepted, in hke form, the centralisms of the 
 paternity of God and the brotherhood of man ; 
 both thought alike of the dignity of human 
 nature ; both^reached like conclusions as to dis- 
 cipline and the great restoration ; both had a 
 faith in immortality that rose to the sublime ; 
 and both, too, were the subjects of dogmatic 
 criticism from good and true men of their own 
 denomination, whose minds were not given to 
 
44 THOMAS STARR KINO. 
 
 philosophy, who measured fidelity to principle 
 by devotion to sect, and stood like Cerberus at 
 its gates, to warn off intrusion, or to keep up 
 interior discipline. The sympathy between the 
 two friends was noble. Nothing could exceed 
 the admiration which Dr. Ballou habitually ex- 
 pressed for the intellectual gifts of his young 
 friend ; and no one ever heard from the lips of 
 Thomas Starr King aught but love and grati- 
 tude for his theological father. The corre- 
 spondence between them was rich in the play 
 of fancy, and depth of thought. 
 
 Starr, under the counsel of Dr. Ballou, now 
 entered upon a systematic course of study, with 
 a view to the ministry. He made a grateful 
 reference to his long commimion with Dr. Bal- 
 lou, in a speech at a festival, a year or two 
 before he went to California. Eev. A. D. 
 Mayo said, on this occasion, " that all the theo- 
 logical education he enjoyed was three months' 
 study in the library of Dr. BaUou, and that 
 such an association with him was enough." Mr. 
 King, who followed Mr. Mayo, said, "I have 
 been more fortunate. More than three months. 
 
THE PREPARATION. 45 
 
 more than three years, more than three times 
 three years, almost ten times three years, I 
 have been receiving influence from that noble 
 man ; for I can hardly remember vyhen in child- 
 hood I did not look up to that forehead and those 
 blue eyes as the expression of a noble Christian 
 integrity, wisdom, and purity." 
 
 Starr was also receiving influence from an- 
 other teacher. He went regularly into Boston 
 to attend Professor Walker's lectures, which 
 were listened to by him with absorbing inter- 
 est. He took notes of them; and though he did 
 not use the short-hand method, yet such was 
 his power of memory, that he wrote out in fuU 
 certainly the twelve lectures of the third course, 
 for his own use, which, three years later, were 
 printed ia the "Boston Daily Star." But he 
 did far more for himself than this. He made 
 the theme of the philosophy of religion his 
 study ; he reasoned on the great problems con- 
 nected with it ; he examined the authors to 
 whom reference had been made in these lec- 
 tures ; and he attributed to the direction thus 
 given to his mind much fixedness of opinion 
 
46 THOMAS STABB KING. 
 
 which he attained on vital points of theology. 
 Probably this discipline saved him from that 
 experience of doubt which many gifted minds 
 pass through. 
 
 Professor Tweed gives an interesting relation 
 of this season of preparation : " The attendance 
 of Mr. King on these lectures was an era in 
 his life. I well remember attending the doc- 
 tor's first lecture with him, and his return to 
 my house after the lecture. Upon some in- 
 quiry about it, he began, stated the subject, 
 and the whole plan in the order of its develop- 
 ment ; using so many of the very expressions of 
 the lecturer, that I listened with wonder. It 
 seemed like a repetition of the lecture. Very 
 soon he commenced writing out each lecture, 
 with such fulness and accuracy that it seemed 
 like a verbal report. The authors referred to 
 and quoted were noted, and their works ob- 
 tained and read ; so that the lectures, with the 
 reading to which they gave rise, were to him, 
 in that department of theology, a whole body 
 of divinity. Some ten or twelve years after he 
 commenced preaching, he told me he had never 
 
THE PBEPAMATION. 47 
 
 been able to write a sermon on a subject treated 
 by Dr. Walker. He had tried several times ; 
 but, to use his own words, ' so exhaustive was 
 the doctor's treatment, that he soon found him- 
 self transcribing one of his old reports.'" 
 
 His correspondence, at this period, shows 
 that his theological views were assuming the 
 shape, as to essentials or groundwork, which 
 they retained through life. He aimed at fel- 
 lowship with all that he regarded as Christianity. 
 He was a Unitarian in the distinctive tenet that 
 marks this denomination ; he was a Univer- 
 salist in the doctrine of the final restoration, 
 which gives this sect its name: but he elevated, 
 as the standard above the sect or creed, the 
 Christian spirit and the Christian life ; and held 
 that to be a true apostolic church which would 
 receive, through whatever creed or doorway, 
 the sincere worshipper in spirit and in truth. 
 He tried parties in the theological world by 
 this standard. " My great ambition in life is," 
 he wrote at thirty-five, " to serve the cause of 
 Christianity as represented by the noblest souls 
 of all the liberal Christian parties." 
 
48 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 His theological tendency is seen in a letter 
 addressed to his aunt (March 11, 1843), when 
 on a visit to Portsmouth : " We have a fine 
 Unitarian preacher there [Medford], Rev. C. 
 Stetson, with whom I am intimately acquainted. 
 He is a man of solid acquirements, weighing 
 some three hundred pounds. I have attended 
 his church pretty often since my removal, which 
 has occasioned mother some worriment, which 
 you may suppose is no way lessened, when I 
 tell her, at least twice a week, that I intend 
 taldng a class in his Sabbath school, and study- 
 ing for the Unitarian ministry. What should 
 you say, should I inform you such is my inten- 
 tion ? Really, I believe the Unitarian party, as 
 a whole, understand themselves better, and are 
 doing a nobler work, than the Universalists. I 
 am sick of the miserable dogmatism which meas- 
 ures the greatness and worth of every man and 
 sect by the openness and clearness with which 
 they have avowed the final restoration. Witness 
 Whittemore on Channing. Of course, you will 
 not construe these remarks to imply any dimi- 
 nution of faith on my part in the distinctive 
 
THE PREPARATION. 49 
 
 tenets of Universalists. I simply believe that 
 the Unitarians, as a body, are doing more for 
 Liberal Christianity, with all their vagueness 
 upon that point, than the Universalists, with 
 all their dogmatism. This belief I have felt 
 for some time, and it has not been lessened by 
 an attendance upon Dr. Walker's lectures this 
 winter. I wiU. not say more at this time, as 
 you and I wUl probably have a discussion upon 
 this point, ere long, unless you are of the same 
 opinion. By the way, I want you to see my 
 reports of the above lectures. The course this 
 winter has been rich; their subject, the harmony 
 of the great doctrines of revelation — God, 
 Providence, and immortality — with the teach- 
 ings of Nature." In another letter, in April, 
 he says, "I have recently commenced the study 
 of the German, which you know is an indispen- 
 sable accomplishment for a Unitarian clergy- 
 man." 
 
 Starr was not fascinated with the views of 
 Theodore Parker's "Discourse on Eeligion," 
 which was now making a noise in the theologi- 
 cal world ; for, on its appearance, he subjected 
 4 
 
50 THOMAS 8TASB KING. 
 
 it to an analysis and criticism sufficient to es- 
 tablish, satisfactorily for himself, its basis to be 
 fallacy, and its superstructure to be inconsistent 
 and illogical. Indeed, he never looked on the 
 views known as " Parkerism " as profound, and 
 predicted they would be transient. 
 
 At this period, Mr. Parker, whQe on a 
 visit to Medford, met Starr, and (April 13, 
 1843) wrote in his diary : " Saw schoolmaster 
 Thomas Starr King, — capital fellow, only 
 nineteen." Taught school three years. Sup- 
 ports his mother. He went into Walker's 
 three courses of lectures, and took good notes. 
 Heads French, Spanish, Latin, Italian, a little 
 Greek, and begins German. He is a good 
 listener." This shows the impression which 
 this loving and heroic nature made on the 
 learned, in personal intercourse, as he listened, 
 sifted, and appropriated what he judged was 
 good. Starr, this month, went to hear Mr. 
 Parker preach, and gives a touch of himself, in 
 a letter, dated April 25, 1843, about the ser- 
 mon : — 
 
 "On Sunday last. Rev. Theodore Parker 
 
■TEE PBEPAJRATION. 51 
 
 preached in this place. I heard only the after- 
 noon sermon. It was a queer performance ; 
 his text, ' The fear of the Lord maketh a merry 
 heart.' The discourse was intended to show 
 the difference between religious principle and 
 rehgious sentiment. Persons whose religion 
 belongs to the first category he describes as fol- 
 lowing the ordinances of religion merely to sat- 
 isfy conscience, because conscience commands. 
 Their motto is. The least possible righteousness 
 and the greatest possible reward. The first 
 time, by the way, I ever heard persons con- 
 demned from the pulpit for possessing religious 
 principle. Persons of the second class, of reli- 
 gious sentiment, are those who follow religion 
 for the love of it, because their nature demands 
 it : it is the accomplishment of their destiny. 
 Persons of this stamp carry their religion in 
 their face, always smiling, always cheerM, 
 merry-hearted; and, as I belong to this last- 
 mentioned class of existences, I am well con- 
 tent to reverse the argument, and reason that 
 the existence of these signs in the phiz is a 
 sufficient indication of the existence of religious 
 sentiment in the heart." 
 
52 THOMAS STABB KING. 
 
 EQs salary hardly met his wants ; and this 
 year he applied for a better situation, which 
 offered itself in Eoxbury. One of its School 
 Board visited Medford, and expressed himself 
 much pleased with Starr's school. The result 
 was unsuccessful. The "youth alone" pre- 
 vented the appointment. In a long letter ad- 
 dressed to his aunt at New York, Starr refers 
 to this matter, and, after a jocular strain about 
 his New-York relatives, remarks thus on him- 
 self:— 
 
 " To my sage aunt I present my regards, the 
 compliments of the season, and assurances of 
 my most distinguished consideration. She may 
 clothe the ideas in the most poetic terms the 
 dictionary may afford. Let her be reminded, 
 by the way, that I have engaged a suit of rooms 
 at the Astor House. I hope your mother will 
 keep in mind her degenerate descendant. I 
 have a great respect for my ancestors ; and, no 
 doubt, I shall be stimulated by a generous re- 
 spect for them to those efforts which in future 
 days will reflect glory upon the family. Biogra- 
 phers of the next age wiU doubtless look back 
 
TEE PREPARATION. 53 
 
 to the progenitors of T. S. K. for influences 
 to acpount for the existence of such a genius, 
 and his influence on the age. You had better 
 render their work as light as possible by leav- 
 ing some slight sketch of the family." 
 
 A short time after this, Charlestown friends 
 recommended him to Col. Seth J. Thomas, 
 who had just been appointed naval store-keep- 
 er, for one of the desks in the office at the 
 Navy Yard; and, not without misgivings, Starr 
 fell in with the proposal. On calling on Col. 
 Thomas, who had not seen him before, Stan- 
 expressed diffidence as to his ability to perform 
 the duties ; but he was assured in the kindest 
 way that he would succeed, when he accepted. 
 The compensation of the new position promised 
 to double his means of support, and to enable 
 him to add to his choice collection of books, — 
 the ever-welcome and never-complaining com- 
 panions which he was lovingly gathering in. 
 On sending in his resignation to the Medford 
 School Committee (Aug. 1, 1843), they had a 
 special examination of his school ; and, their 
 records say, "it gave evidence of the fidelity 
 
54 THOMAS STABB KING. 
 
 and energy for which he is so much distin- 
 guished." Thus honorably closed a service as 
 teacher in the common schools, which he was 
 next officially to enter as a member of the Bos- 
 ton Committee, with the speciality of super- 
 vising the large school in which his former 
 teacher (Mr. Bates) was and still is the prin- 
 cipal. "Now, sir," Mr. King said to Mr. 
 Bates, "I have a chance to pay you off." 
 
 Soon after this appointment, the family of 
 Starr removed to Charlestown, where there was 
 for him a deep interest and large love, which 
 continued through his life. He lived several 
 years in a house on Main Street, neai* Oak 
 Street, and opposite the residence of the writer 
 of this tribute, in whose home he was very 
 intimate during his residence in Charlestovra. 
 He was uncommonly buoyant and happy in an 
 occupation, which, though not in accordance 
 with his tastes, yet, beside placing him in com- 
 fortable pecuniary circumstances, afforded him 
 leisure hours. He ever recognized a field of 
 honor in the practice of the duties of common 
 hfe ; and as he had aimed to do business well 
 
THE PEEPAMATION. 55 
 
 and to keep school well, so he tried to be a 
 good accountant. He wrote a neat, round, 
 clear hand. He made a fine record. His re- 
 ports to the department of Bureau and Con- 
 struction were well done, He was quick at 
 figures. His routine of duty was discharged 
 with rare intelligence. The men of business 
 having dealings with the office liked him, and 
 he was a favorite with the officers of the yard. 
 Some of his friends feared that the attractions 
 of a government office, or the excitement and 
 prizes of pohtics, might wear upon his resolu- 
 tion as to the ministry ; but there was not the 
 least danger of it : and it may be said with 
 confidence, that this or other fields of labor had 
 no attractions for him. WhUe no such idea 
 ever took possession of him as that he was born 
 to be a prophet, or the founder of a new sect, 
 or the spreader of a new dogma, yet he ever 
 looked forward to the time when he should be 
 a minister of the gospel ; and none ever re- 
 garded with greater disfavor than he did an 
 unpreparedness of heart and mind for this 
 work. 
 
56 THOMAS STABB KING. 
 
 Professor Tweed continued the Principal of 
 the Bunker-Hill School, and was one of Starr's 
 intimate associates. He remarks of Starr at 
 this time : " It has been said that at this period, 
 while teaching and in the Navy Yard, he pur- 
 sued an extensive course of study. This is 
 true ; but if he had been spoken of at that 
 time, among his intimate friends, as a hard 
 student, it would have raised a smile. They 
 would have said, one who devotes so much 
 time to society cannot be called a very close 
 student. But the quickness of his apprehen- 
 sion, the retentiveness of his memory, and 
 the celerity with which all knowledge was ar- 
 ranged and digested, enabled him to accomplish 
 the work of years for ordinary minds in as many 
 weeks." 
 
FAITH AND PHILSOPHY IN YOUTH. 
 
 HERE are men who solemnly conse- 
 crate themselves to the highest ser- 
 vice ; who bind their will to the law 
 of right in a vow of marriage whose sanctity is 
 ever felt; who, according to their original tem- 
 perament, make either the idea of justice, or 
 the revealed wiU of Heaven, or the conception 
 of God as the Sovereign or the Father, the back- 
 ground of their consciousness : so that, when 
 the foreground is taken up by the world, and 
 in all seasons when unorganized spirits might 
 be in the peril of doing wrong, there is a sacred 
 motive ready to start into prominence, if the 
 interests of holiness are likely to be betrayed." 
 These words of Thomas Starr King outline his 
 
 [57J 
 
58 THOMAS STABR KING. 
 
 own inner nature, liis consecration, his prep- 
 aration, Ms faith, and his philosophy. 
 
 At nineteen, while earning his living by a 
 faithful performance of duty, he continued to 
 employ profitably his leisure hours ; trimming 
 the midnight lamp for study, and aiming to be 
 exact and thorough in his acquisitions. In the 
 belief that it required training and discipline 
 and severe reflection to reach the highest walks 
 of theology, as it required them to reach the 
 highest walks in any intellectual pursuit, he 
 inured himself to habits of patient and untiring 
 thought. He gave much attention now to the 
 philosophy of history, as treated in the works of 
 Guizot and the lectures of Frederick Schlegel. 
 Still, he ever recurred to metaphsyics, and was 
 accustomed to commend their study to others. 
 "Well do I remember," Eev. A. D. Mayo 
 remarked in a dinner-speech in Faneuil Hall, 
 "that the first day of our youthful acquaint- 
 ance he read me into a fit of indigestion and a 
 sleepless night, with his Plato and Kant and 
 Cousin ; a night whose watchful hours I im- 
 proved by maturing the resolution, that, on 
 
FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 59 
 
 my return to my comitry home, I would begin 
 those philosophical studies in which he is second 
 to no man of his age in our country." In the 
 speech which Mr. King made on this occasion, 
 he remarked, " Let me say here, that, however 
 much interested I may have felt in philosophy 
 generally, there is one system, verbally repre- 
 sented by one of the names just pronounced, 
 which has done so much harm in the religious 
 world, that I try to get rid of it, and earnestly 
 desire to see all pulpits and meetings utterly 
 free from its poison, — the system of cant." 
 
 His letters at this period are mostly in a 
 cheerful vein, full of sportive allusions to per- 
 sonal matters and things of the hour, with now 
 and then an oflf-hand touch of metaphysics. 
 A long and playful letter of this sort (Aug. 
 22, 1844), addressed to his friend Mr. Ean- 
 dolph Eyer, of New York, begins : " I joy- 
 fully descend from the awful height of the 
 sublime abstractions upon which for the past 
 few weeks I have been so calmly seated, to 
 converse with thee ; to mourn the sad fate 
 which binds thee to the sensual ; and to offer 
 
60 THOMAS STAIiB KINO. 
 
 a few thoughts in relation to things temporal 
 and spiritual." "It seems like an age since 
 I was in your city. Scarcely any thing more 
 than outline remains of the rich and varied ex- 
 periences of those glorious three weeks. The 
 events look dim and shadowy ; but the ac-; 
 tors, Eandolph, still stand out in their natural 
 brilliancy. Memory is a glorious fact in our 
 spiritual constitution. "Without it, the past 
 would be nothing, and the future valueless. 
 Time would be compressed into a present, in- 
 definite, indivisible point ; History fade out of 
 the circle of intellectual pursuits ; Reason con- 
 cern itself merely with the intuitions of the 
 instant ; the sublime Inductions, founded on 
 facts of past experience, would be withdrawn 
 from the galaxy of the sciences ; and Beauty, 
 which depends on combined expressions, die out 
 of the heart of humanity. Considerations like 
 these, my friend, as well as the present recollec- 
 tions of New York, certainly afford a legitimate 
 proof for the value and importance of memory. 
 Perhaps you may think, so far as I am con- 
 cerned, a science of forgetftdness would be of 
 
FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 61 
 
 greater importance. It might, if the very recol- 
 lection of errors was not the condition of re- 
 morse and the possibility of reformation." 
 Then the letter runs on, in a mixture of persons 
 and metaphysics; and at the close has the 
 words, " Now for a return to the study of the 
 middle ages ; " in which he was guided mainly 
 by Guizot. 
 
 Three months later (Sept. 24, 1844), he 
 writes, — 
 
 " The current of my temporal earthly exist- 
 ence flows gently and calmly. The inner man 
 also is serene; resting trustfully, as usual, in the 
 arms of a glorious faith and a noble philosophy. 
 Have you ever reflected on the intimate con- 
 nection between revelation and philosophy, faith 
 and reason ? By many they are put in contrast, 
 set in opposition. Yet they mutually explain 
 and reciprocally aid each other. Faith in man 
 implies the doctrine of the dignity of human 
 nature. The doctrines of revelation must con- 
 form to the exhibitions which God has given us 
 of his power, wisdom, glory, and goodness, 
 through nature and the soul. Eeason, instead 
 
62 THOMAS STABB KINO. 
 
 of being subordinated to faith, is the very es- 
 sence of faith, else faith is a blind idolatry. 
 The true faith is the self-renunciation of reason 
 where reason finds that it can know no farther. 
 Faith is, therefore, reason ; but reason under 
 another form. You, Randolph, take your faith 
 directly from Christianity, and apply it directly 
 to the condition of society. You desire the 
 social manifestation of Christianity as the means 
 of raising the individual. I also find that phi- 
 losophy, as it is drawn from the crystaUized 
 instruction of nature, and from the mysterious 
 depths of spiritual life, is confirmed and sancti- 
 fied by Christianity. I look rather to the eleva- 
 tion of the individual as one great mean of 
 improving society. Both tendencies are neces- 
 sary, my friend. Neither shoxild exclude the 
 other. Eclecticism is the motto on the banner 
 of the niaeteenth century." 
 
 He was now having, to use his own words, 
 glorious times in attending a philosophical class 
 which met every Wednesday evening, and was 
 reading Stewart on the philosophy of the mind. 
 " Our modus operandi," he says, "is this: We 
 
FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 63 
 
 read some chapters ad interim, and at the meet- 
 ings discuss the diiFerent points, and mutually 
 expound." He remarks that he had read much 
 in this department lately, and that it was as 
 attractive as ever. He sought rare books on 
 this subject ; and was amused with the remark 
 with which a Boston scholar loaned him Cou- 
 sin's " Plato," indicating grave doubts as to an 
 ability in one so young to understand it. When 
 Dr. Ott's work came out, he met something 
 that puzzled him ; invited Harvard students to 
 read it with him : and rich were the hours they 
 had over this work. "I am at present," he 
 wrote, " engaged in the study of a work on the 
 latest school of German philosophy. It is by 
 Dr. Ott, of Paris ; and is an exposition of the 
 system of Hegel. . Kant's system is pretty dif- 
 ficult ; but this ties the brain up in knots." 
 
 He now paid special attention to the German 
 language, and took lessons in it of the cele- 
 brated Dr. KJraitser. On Sundays, he would 
 leave his own communion to listen in Boston to 
 sermons in this language ; and far into the night 
 he would talk of Goethe and Schiller, and the 
 
64 THOMAS STARS, KING. 
 
 German divines of the school of Tholuck and 
 De Wette. He was passionately fond of Plato, 
 and so closely studied the father of the pro- 
 gressive school, that he seemed to live with him. 
 On returning one day from a season of com- 
 munion with Dr. Ballou, his bright eye had an 
 uncommon sparkle, and his countenance was 
 aglow with joy, because of the favorable judg- 
 ment which this ripe scholar passed on an 
 essay which he had prepared on knotty points 
 of the Platonic works, and had left for ex- 
 amination. This was not flattery in one of the 
 truest and sincerest of men ; it was not vanity 
 in a devoted explorer in the realms of truth ; it 
 was recognition, by one having authority, of an 
 intellectual triumph, and joy in the young en- 
 thusiast at another mark of progress up heights 
 which he felt it necessary to attain, though he 
 might have the crowning qualification of the 
 Christian gifts, ere he could be a worthy min- 
 ister of the gospel. 
 
 Not the least of his discipline and ripening 
 for his mission was his manly wrestle with pov- 
 erty and difficulty and grief. He experienced 
 
FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 65 
 
 suffering in most of the forms that rive the 
 human heart. He had felt a great sorrow. 
 The struggle at times had been severe ; but his 
 high aim, his store of inward resources, the 
 simple truth, enabled Iiim to bear up and to 
 press on. At times, even when the prospect 
 was a clear sea and a halcyon sky, when he was 
 so happy and mirthful as to be like sunlight in 
 society, he would retire to hours when memo- 
 ries of his past of grief would take possession 
 of him. " Many meet the gods, but few salute 
 them." He was one of the few. His reli- 
 giously tuned ear ever heard the divine voice. 
 He heard it in the ministry of sorrow as well as 
 of joy, and he saluted his trials as blessings. 
 He was in one of these moods one evening 
 
 o 
 
 after a return from New York, and after he 
 had continual company, when he wrote (Aug. 
 10, 1845) a long letter to his friend Randolph 
 Eyer, of New York. " Hurry of business," he 
 says, "and restlessness of spirit, are mortal foes 
 to the sweet intercourse of friendship. The 
 soul must float iu a serener atmosphere, must 
 be subject to more soothing influences, must dis- 
 6 
 
66 THOMAS 8TABB KING. 
 
 engage itself for a time from the limitations of 
 space and circumstance, and feel itself at home 
 in the free work of spiritual existence, before it 
 can hope to indulge in that luxury of calm medi- 
 tation, and arrive at that perfect ' synthesis ' of 
 feeling, which is the first condition of epistolary 
 success. To-night, for the first time since I 
 left New York, I am alone. I am grateful for 
 the soothing silence of the dying day. An un- 
 natural excitement, which has been stimulated 
 by continual company, is thrown off; and, if its 
 departure brings again the memory of troubles, 
 it also suggests anew pleasant recollections of 
 distant friends." 
 
 His strain was introspective. He dwelt much 
 on his own past, and especially on his past of 
 trouble and sorrow. " The reality of loss," he 
 says, "often oppresses me J exaggerated perhaps 
 by the imagination, which always imparts an 
 ideal hue to the experience of the past as well as 
 the expectations of the future." StOl, his earnest 
 words were, " I reverence the great law of com- 
 pensation, even when it reveals itself to me in 
 the distresses of the inner man." He says that 
 
FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 67 
 
 he never felt so deeply his attachment to his 
 friends ; and he relates having a rich conversa- 
 tion with one of them, his pastor, on his return 
 trip from New York. 
 
 " Mr. Chapin and myself enjoyed a very iti- 
 teresting, and I believe profitable, conversation 
 in the boat, upon literature and religion. I love 
 him for his manly and free thought, his enlarged 
 Christian charity, capable of seeing the excel- 
 lences of his opponents, and the defects of his 
 own sect ; and, above all, for that practical ap- 
 preciation of the realities of religion and the 
 spiritual world. Seldom have I met a man 
 who with a heartier communion sympathized 
 with a great doctrine which every day becomes 
 more important and more real and more dear to 
 me, — the doctrine of a universal Providence. 
 I am indebted for the first conception of its 
 grandeur and sublimity, as I am indebted for 
 so many other of the better tendencies of my 
 mind, to the noble lectures of Dr. Walker; 
 and never shall I forget the emotions which the 
 first indistinct but positive conception of its 
 truth awakened in me. I look upon it now as 
 
68 THOMAS STABB KING. 
 
 one of the greatest doctrines of Christianity ; 
 and of vast importance in clearing up, when 
 rightly understood, many of the difficulties 
 which are now pricking the sides of the Chris- 
 tian Church. Away with that inconsistent phi- 
 losophy which believes in the spirituality and 
 omnipresence of God, and cannot see that the 
 action of every physical force is an immediate 
 expression of his present wiU ; that every law 
 of nature is only the uniform and consistent 
 developement of his steady designs ! Away 
 with that practical atheism which professes faith 
 in a universal Father, and does not recognize 
 in every moral fact an exhibition of his disci- 
 pline and his presence!" 
 
 This gives an idea of his words in commu- 
 nion with friends, to whom, as he dwelt on 
 his struggles and his hopes, he unconsciously 
 sounded the depths of his nature. But to 
 words are to be added the tone of voice, the 
 gesture, the lights and shades of the face, as his 
 talk flowed on. There coidd be no mistaking 
 this combination. It revealed a real, stalwart 
 character. It showed how this noble youth 
 
FAITH AND PHILOSOPHT. 69 
 
 sought, like Enoch of old, to walk with God ; 
 and how faith in the sublime doctrine of Provi- 
 dence, reverenced in its revelations in the inner 
 man by sorrow as well as by the outward world 
 of beauty and glory, gave peace to his soul 
 when it was in trouble, and wings to his spirit 
 when it soared. 
 
 His circle of friends was now widening. He 
 did not seek to dwell apart, or waste himself 
 on musings on his inward life, or practise oddi- 
 ties, or affect ways of greatness : but he was a 
 true man of the world ; appreciating the bright 
 side of life, and enjoying it. He was passion- 
 ately fond of music and painting and sculpture ; 
 and he loved the drama. He saw in art a 
 development of the spirit of the beautiful in 
 man, as he saw a revelation of God in the glory 
 of nature. He was interested in what was go- 
 ing on around him ; sought to know what was 
 best for his country ; and was as enthusiastic, 
 on seeing the right side in politics prevail, as 
 he was when glorious rollers tumbled at his 
 feet on the ocean shore at Eockport, or when 
 he revelled in the unsurpassed glories of the 
 Yo-Semite region. 
 
70 TEOMAS STABS. KING. 
 
 It is a temptation to linger on the simple 
 Starr Bang as he was before the public eye 
 turned toward him, and as he stood on the 
 threshold of responsibility. His former busi- 
 ness-companions are warm in their eulogy of 
 Iiim. "I never saw," one of them says, "so 
 noble a young man." His genial, generous, 
 magnetic nature, his cordiality, his lovable 
 qualities, drew hearts toward him wherever he 
 went ; for the natural gentleman was ever be- 
 hind the brilliant conversational powers that 
 made him the delight of society. He was a 
 close observer as he was a sincere respecter of 
 common life ; a keen judge of men and things ; 
 and a good admirer as well as good listener. 
 He would seize on incidents having touches of 
 humor and witty sayings, and hold them in his 
 memory ; and with the faculty of making a pic- 
 ture in a graphic sentence, and a rare imparting 
 gift, he would relate them with a raciness and 
 vivacity and a right merry ringing laugh that 
 were contagious ; and if they bore hard on him- 
 self, then the greater glee. He did so much of 
 this, and sb well, that casual observers might 
 
FAITH AND PEILOSOPEY. 71 
 
 have supposed that he cultivated story-tellino' 
 and repartee as an art. But it was natural for 
 liim to do this as it was for him to breathe. 
 Yet confidential correspondence proves that his 
 craving was for ministry to his spiritual wants. 
 The quiet serenity of nature, the solemn still- 
 ness of the forest, the impressive silence of 
 the mountain summit, the reflective beauty 
 of the moon-lit lake, would, by the law of 
 association, work in him convictions of the 
 highest truths which the soul reaches, — the ex- 
 istence of God, the beauty of the Christian 
 faith, the dignity of human nature, the mean- 
 ing of immortality.* His communion was in- 
 
 * I have used Starr's own words in stating what the ministry 
 of nature was to his spirit. They occur in his elaborate review 
 of "Festns;" a poem by Philip James Bailey. This article, 
 printed before he was twenty-one, contains much to show how 
 the influence of his daily experience moulded and directed his 
 genius. The words on the ministry of nature occur in the fol- 
 lowing connection : — 
 
 " Mr. Bailey's love of beauty is a continual, unsatisfied, ever- 
 burning thirst Like every true poet, he has an intimate sym- 
 pathy with the outward universe in all its forms. He is the child 
 of Nature, and to her 'he turns heart, arm, and brain.' We sub- 
 cribe to one element, at least, of his religious creed : — 
 
 * Some souls lose all things but the love of beauty, 
 And by that love they aro redeemable ; 
 For in love and beauty they acknowledge good.' 
 
72 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 timate with the pioneers of progress, on whom 
 the Almighty poured largely of the Spirit; and, 
 above aU, with Him who spake as never man 
 spake ; who was Eternal "Wisdom ; to whom he 
 bowed, and whom he adored. And this reach- 
 ing-out for truth celestial made not merely the 
 strength but the basis of his character, and car- 
 ried him nearer to his goal. 
 
 His inward craving may be seen in the 
 pleasure which he enjoyed in a class of friends, 
 who, like himself, were aiming at spiritual 
 growth. Among them were ingenuous young 
 men of Harvard College, who heard of Starr 
 Bang, and desired to make his acquaintance. 
 
 And, again, who has not felt the truth of this inquiry? — 
 
 * How can tiie beauty of material things 
 So -ma the heart, and work upon the mind, 
 Unless like-natured with them? Are great Voia^ 
 And thoughts of the same blood? They have like eSect.' 
 
 " There is deep meaning in the earnest question of these last 
 two lines. Never, at least, have we so felt a conviction of the 
 highest truths that address themselves to the inmost soul, the 
 existence of God, the beauty of Christian faith, the dignity of 
 human nature, the truth and meaning of immortality, as when, 
 hy some inexplicable association, they have been suggested by 
 the quiet serenity of nature, the solemn stillness of the forest, the 
 impressive silence of the mountain summit, the reflective beauty 
 of the moon-lit lake." 
 
FAITH AND PHILOSOPRT. 73 
 
 With some of them, now ranking high in their 
 callings, he would compare notes of progress. 
 There was none nearer to him than John M. 
 Edgarton, — a pure and noble soul, of great 
 solidity of character, deeply religious, but un- 
 commonly undemonstrative and taciturn. Both 
 had like philosophical tastes, both aimed for 
 the clerical office, and both were of singular 
 promise. Starr used to greet him, " How are 
 you, Kingdom of Silence?" His death, a lit- 
 tle later, was a sore bereavement, a great sor- 
 row, quickening and deepening the fountains 
 of sympathy. On receiving the intelligence, 
 he wrote, "My dear friend and associate, John 
 ]M. Edgarton, is dead. It was very sudden ; 
 came on me like a thunderbolt : indeed, I knew 
 not how to bear it. John was one of the no- 
 blest men I ever knew, and was decidedly the 
 ablest man in our order. He is an irreparable 
 loss. What need we have of faith, of constant 
 spiritual insight, that these melancholy shows of 
 things do not overwhelm us ! John is depart- 
 ed, but not lost to us." Sarah C. Edgarton, 
 his sister, was a like spirit ; and, on her depart- 
 
74 TEOMAS 8TABB. KING. 
 
 ure, Starr spoke of her in a sermon as "the 
 gifted and the good, whose genius was attuned 
 with every force and harmony of nature ; whose 
 friendship was one of the choicest pleasures of 
 existence." She was at Shirley Village when 
 her brother died, and, five days after this event, 
 addressed to Starr a letter full of the divine in 
 faith and consolation. " On this beautiful sab- 
 bath morning," the letter begins, "holy and 
 serene, when all nature is composed, and all 
 heaven is at peace, shall I not make the hours 
 of my solitude and weakness a season of grate- 
 ftd trust in God, and of consolation and cheer 
 to myself and you? Would that you were 
 here, dear Starr ! the peace and courage that 
 is in my own soul could not fail to impart itself 
 to you. Doubtless you will have this peace 
 soon, when this sorrow is less new to you, and 
 your own high views have had time to subdue 
 the anguish of bereaved affection. John had 
 no dearer friend than yourself." Sarah soon 
 joined her brother in heaven, and the three 
 are now gathered in one fold. But, as Starr 
 approached manhood, he was bathing himself 
 
FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY. 75 
 
 in this sweet spiritual influence, counting it one 
 of the choicest pleasures of existence. The 
 wider circle of older friends continued complete 
 for more than a decade ; and, when it was 
 broken, the cry of the bruised in spirit gives 
 an idea of the strength of the silver cord. 
 
 Thus the deceitful paths, always wide open, 
 and which at this period of life lure so many, 
 had no temptation for Thomas Starr King. 
 He chose wisdom's ways, and they yielded him 
 their rich reward ; and, as he enjoyed the com- 
 munion of souls rich in learning and piety, he 
 walked among them, charmingly unconscious 
 that he possessed a Minerva of intellect pano- 
 plied in shining armor,* but feeling the most 
 an inward want, a need of the grace of culture, 
 and without a trace of conceit. The childhood 
 traits, now developed into principles of action, 
 remained childlike in the jewels of simplicity 
 and purity : the same, the reverence for the 
 divine ; the same, the enthusiasm for learning ; 
 the same, the filial piety ; and the same, the 
 noble purpose, as they were seven years before, 
 » Dr. Chapia. 
 
7<3 THOMAS STARS. KING. 
 
 but all blossoming in rich and rare maturity. 
 For, imbued with these normal influences that 
 minister to the pure in heart, the days of his 
 youth, when he remembered his Creator, glided 
 on as free from the things which tempt and 
 stain, and as aboimding in the things that 
 elevate and adorn, as often falls to the lot of 
 humanity. His great, broad heart was flowing 
 forth in love and good works. His splendid 
 genius was enriched by culture, and consecrated 
 for service. His faith was unclouded by doubt, 
 and his philosophy was fortified by experience. 
 His life even now stood — 
 
 " Hounded and approved 
 la tJie full growth and stature of a man." 
 
THE 
 
 BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 
 
 ! TAER at twenty, on the beginning of 
 his ministry, had been educated. Rev. 
 A. D. Mayo says, " by hard work ; by 
 experiences, that, to a nature less joyous than his, 
 would have been stem and sad ; by the school- 
 room, the navy-yard and its motley population, 
 the concert, and the drama ; by rare hours with 
 the best men and women, and solitary nights 
 of study as intense and protracted as the mind 
 could endure ; by Nature,' which always min- 
 istered so largely to his spirit ; by a communion 
 with God and a love for man as deep and child- 
 like as is often given to any soul to enjoy." 
 He freely used the four ancient and modem 
 languages, that, with the English, contain, in 
 
 [77] 
 
78 THOMAS STARR KINO. 
 
 orlsinal or translated forms, the entire wisdom 
 of the world ; he had read widely in German 
 and English theology ; he was familiar with the 
 systems of philosophy that have formed epochs 
 in the progress of man, and was well versed in 
 history and general literature.* He had not 
 neglected a matter of great importance, which 
 pubHc speakers too often disregard, or but care- 
 lessly attend to, — a good delivery. He had 
 
 * Eev. A. D. Mayo, who was one of Starr's early and inti- 
 mate iriends, makes this enumeration in his sermon, delivered 
 March 13, 1864, at Cmcinnati. He married Sarah C. Edgarton, 
 and in 1849 published selections from her writings, with a me- 
 moir. I have quoted Mr. King's tribute to this gifted spirit 
 This memoir has the following sonnet: — ■ 
 
 H B S. e. u. JS. M A T O. 
 
 BV MRS. H. J. W. LEWIS. 
 
 ** 1 do not weep for thee ; 1 hare not wept." — S. C. E. AlATO. 
 
 Sister, friend, poetess, a long farewell .' 
 
 There needs not many words to paint my grief: 
 Wife, mother, Nature's priestess ! who can tell 
 
 The sum of all thy joys in life so brief? 
 The beauty of thy daily walk tkey know 
 
 Who dwelt within the circle of thy Ioto, — 
 Thy calm, pure faith; thy truth like spotless snow; 
 
 Thy spirit strong, yet gentle as the dove. 
 And shall we hear no more the strain sublime. 
 
 Or soft or touching, thou hast breathed so well? 
 Can we resign thee in thy life's sweet prime, 
 
 And, lost to earth, give thee with God to dwell? 
 I have wept burning tears, and still must weep, 
 That one so great and good should fall asleep. 
 
BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 79 
 
 studied the philosophy of the voice, trained his 
 vocal organs under competent teachers, and 
 acquired the art of concealing art ia speaking 
 in the tone by which Natiu-e expresses sentiment 
 and feehng. At this time, in his own opinion, 
 he was far from being prepared for the Christian 
 ministry : but Dr. BaUou thought he was well 
 fitted for it ; and Mr. Mayo says he was 
 qualified for it as few men have been at any 
 age. 
 
 Starr appeared before the public (1845) in 
 the unenviable character of a Fourth-of-July 
 orator, on an invitation from Medford to take 
 part in a citizens' celebration of Independence, 
 and spoke in the Unitarian Church. Dr. Bal- 
 lou was present ; and if, at the beginning of the 
 oration, observers noticed in his countenance 
 the lines and shades betokening anxiety as to 
 the impression which his young friend was about 
 to make in his first public effort, they also noticed 
 that they disappeared as his glancing eye saw 
 the delight imparted to the audience by crystal 
 clearness of statement, by a quiet self-posses- 
 sion of manner removed alike from an unmanly 
 
80 THOMAS 8TARB KINO. 
 
 diffidence and an offensive assurance, and by a 
 brilliant and eloquent utterance. His face was 
 kept lighted up with, a halo of joy. Such a 
 listener was an inspiration to the orator ; who 
 said, "When the doctor's face was all aglow 
 with satisfaction, I knew it was all right." 
 The oration was a Success, and the author 
 received the warmest congratulations. This 
 production was not printed.* 
 
 Starr contributed to the July number of the 
 " Universalist Quarterly Eeview," then edited 
 by Dr. BaJlou, an article entitled "Philosophy 
 and Theology ; " and to the October number an 
 elaborate review of "Festus," a poem by Philip 
 James Bailey. These papers are characterized 
 by the simple style, poetic fervor, keen analysis, 
 richness of illustration, strength and individual- 
 ism, that mark his productions ; and form an 
 interesting record of his attainments in meta- 
 physics and literature. As the last article was 
 going through the press, he delivered his first 
 sermon at Wobum, Mass. ; and he preferred 
 
 * A letter by Professor Tweed on this oration will be found 
 in the Appendix. 
 
BEOINNING OF SIS MINISTRY. 81 
 
 that his most intimate friends should not be 
 present. He soon after preached in Maiden, 
 where several members of the Charlestown Uni- 
 versalist Society went to hear him ; and he also 
 supplied Dr. BaUou's desk. His services were 
 received with uncommon favor. The invita- 
 tions extended to him to supply pulpits were 
 numerous, — perhaps more than he cared to an- 
 swer ; for he looked on study to be for a long 
 time his duty, although he felt it also to be a 
 duty to answer calls for service. 
 
 Among the pulpits which he occupied was 
 that of a small Universalist society in Boston, 
 which had been recently formed, occupying the 
 chapel in Chardon Street, having Dr. Adam 
 for their minister; and he engaged, under pecu- 
 liar circumstances, statedly to supply their desk. 
 His connection with this society is related in a 
 letter. May 5, 1846, after he had preached 
 here several weeks : — 
 
 " Their pastor. Dr. Adam, is now absent to 
 improve his health at the "West ; and in accord- 
 ance with his urgent solicitation, and a very 
 cordial, not to say flattering, request from the 
 
82 THOMAS STAMR KING. 
 
 society, I have promised to supply for them till 
 his return. This wiU not be for some months 
 yet. They are very fine people, and certainly 
 as intelligent a congregation as can be found in 
 our order. Do not, my dear friend, feel con- 
 cerned lest I am too hastily assuming the pas- 
 toral robes. You cannot write more strongly 
 than I feel upon the solemnity of that office, 
 and the necessity of adequate preparation in. 
 assuming it. My present task is temporary 
 merely, undertaken to aid a very worthy man, 
 and to gratify a few strong friends in the above- 
 mentioned congregation." 
 
 Dr. Chapin having accepted a call from the 
 church in School Street, Boston, the Charles- 
 town Society sought Mr. King for their minister. 
 The letter (July 16, 1846) expressed gratifi- 
 cation that he had chosen, as the work of his 
 life, the vocation of the parent whose memory 
 was so dear to them ; and the hope that the son 
 might follow the father, " so far as he followed 
 Christ, in defending and adorning the cause of 
 imiversal grace." The young preacher hesitated 
 to assume the responsibilities of this position. A 
 
BEGINNINO OF SIS MINISTBY 83 
 
 second and larger representation of the feelings 
 of the society was presented to him ; and, on 
 the 2d of August, he wrote an acceptance. In 
 it he said that the state of his health, the ur- 
 gent necessity for constant study, and the many 
 duties springing from the pastoral relation, 
 compelled him to throw himself on their liber- 
 ality for an unusual freedom in pulpit exchanges 
 during the early period of his ministry ; and 
 he promised to bring to a discharge of the 
 heavy responsibilities which the office of a Chris- 
 tian pastor imposed and implied, only a sincere 
 and devoted heart.* 
 
 » The following is Mr. King's letter of acceptance : — 
 
 Chaelestown, Aug. 2, 1846. 
 
 Mt deae Fkiend and Bkothee, — Tour letter, communi- 
 cating the action of the First TJniversalist Society of this place 
 on the 15th ult., extending to me an invitation to become their 
 pastor, has been received, together with a statement of the pro- 
 ceedings of the society at an adjourned meeting, held July 26, 
 when the action of the committee was " approved and confirmed." 
 You may well believe, that in communicating through you my 
 acceptance of a call so flattering, from the character and standing 
 of the society, still more so from the unanimity of feeling by 
 which it was dictated, I am not insensible to the heavy responsi- 
 bilities which the office of a Christian pastor imposes and implies. 
 There are many associations, of a personal as well as of a re- 
 ligions nature, which are calculated to make the welfare of your 
 
84 THOMAS STABB KING. 
 
 The usual ordination service was conducted 
 mainly by his personal friends. The delivery of 
 the Scriptures and the charge were by Dr. Bal- 
 lon, and the ceremony was impressive. The 
 sermon was by Dr. Chapin, from the text, 
 " Whosoever will be the greatest among you, 
 let him be your minister ; " and he made his 
 
 society a matter of deep and earnest interest to me. I shall 
 come to you a young man, withont pastoral experience, embar- 
 rassed, perhaps, somewhat by many relations of a social and 
 friendly character to the majority of my brethren, and able to 
 bring only a sincere and devoted heart to aid in sustaining the 
 reputation of a pulpit that has witnessed the labor of him whose 
 memory cannot be indifferent to me, and of a predecessor whose 
 abilities and eloquence I can never hope to reach. Next to that 
 support that does not come from human help, I must rely upon 
 your indulgence and sympathy to sustain me, and especially on 
 that cordial co-operation with my labors, without which no talents 
 can be of any avail. The present state of my health, the urgent 
 necessity for constant study, the time that must necessarily be 
 devoted to a general and intimate acquaintance with the mem- 
 bers of the society, and the many duties that spring from a 
 pastoral relation so extensive, will compel me to throw myself 
 upon your liberality for an unusual freedom in pulpit exchanges 
 during the early period of my ministry. Trusting that this may 
 be granted, and earnestly praying that the blessing of Heaven 
 may rest upon the union we have formed, 
 
 I remain your sincere friend and brother, 
 
 Thomas Stark Kikg. 
 
 RlCiLARD FROTIIINGHABt, Jun., Esq., 
 
 Chairman of Standing Committee of the First Unlverealist Society. 
 
BEGINNINa OF HIS MINISTRT. 85 
 
 theme, " The ministry a work of self-consecra- 
 tion." The fellowship of the churches was 
 given by Eev. Cyrus M. Fay. The address to 
 the society was by that noble man, Sebastian 
 Streeter, who touchingly portrayed the beauty 
 of the spectacle presented in the consecration 
 of this youth to the service of the Redeemer. 
 Sarah C. Edgarton contributed the following 
 hymn : — 
 
 " Thou whom heaven and earth adore, 
 The only good, the undefiled ! 
 Thy consecrating Spirit pour 
 Through all the being of thy child. 
 
 Whate'er thy hand hath set apart 
 
 For him on earth to do or bear, 
 With holy faith inspire his heart, 
 
 And make him thy perpetual care. 
 
 Here, where his father stood and taught, 
 
 The mantle falls upon his youth : 
 Oh, make his mighty tide of thought 
 
 A sea to bear abroad thy truth ! 
 
 His words of power shall lift to thee 
 The fainting soul, the sensual mind : 
 
 Like stars in heaven their light shall be. 
 To guide the lost, and lead the blind. 
 
 Through all his varied trials, God, 
 Do thou his guide and guardian be ; 
 
 And, leaning on thy living Word, 
 Sustain him home to heaven and thee ! " 
 
86 THOMAS STABR KINO. 
 
 The speakers made tender references to the 
 father. "I felt," Dr. Chapin says, "a sacred 
 fitness in transmitting the office of that father 
 to the hands of that son." The burning words 
 of the preacher, and indeed the whole occa- 
 sion, were calculated to deepen the consecration 
 of soul which crowns with lustre this noble life. 
 
 The young pastor brought to his labors a 
 rare combination of gifts. His own experience 
 had been valuable, because his pulses had beat 
 healthfully and naturally. He had mingled 
 much. with the world. He had not threaded 
 its dark paths ; he never had an eye for the 
 sad side of life : still he had had free contact 
 with men and things ; and his sunny nature 
 drew inspiration from the genial, the good, the 
 true, and the Christian-like in common life. 
 He looked closely into himself, reflected on the 
 workings of his own mind, and communed 
 freely on spiritual things with those in whom 
 he felt confidence. Kich as was his intellect, 
 richer yet was his love and his faith. 
 
 He tried now in the vocation of his life to do 
 his best. As he stood for two years where his 
 
BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 87 
 
 father stood, mature and profound utterances, 
 golden words, the fruit of long study and of 
 the lessons of practical life, dropped from the 
 sacred desk. His style was not in the passion 
 which marks the great orator. He did not 
 aim to melt the heart, and, by subduing it, to 
 reach the intellect. This is the characteristic 
 of preachers like Whitefield, who, when the 
 voice that charms and leads captive dies away, 
 too often leave nothing adequate to justify the 
 effects they produce. Mr. King's sermons were 
 original in conception, and clear in arrange- 
 ment, fuU of simple reasoning, analyzing and 
 presenting different sides of a subject, and 
 working out the laws of spiritual life. His 
 evening lectures, especially, were characterized 
 by masterly generahzation and felicitous group- 
 ing. This may be said particularly of a 
 series of discourses on Old-Testament char- 
 acters, — Abraham, Moses, David, Samson, 
 and others. They were after the manner of a 
 teacher having authority, but without dogma- 
 tism. His treatment of a subject was so 
 marked by unity, as to indicate that the whole 
 
88 THOMAS STABS KING. 
 
 sweep of it was in the mind before a line was 
 written. It is by his sermons, perhaps, he will 
 be judged intellectually. His lectures, and 
 other occasional efforts, with the exception of 
 " Goethe " and some of his orations, however 
 great the fame they achieved for him, or the 
 restdts they produced, were but the work of 
 the hour. His pulpit-utterances were the 
 flowerings of a life of spiritual unity; and in his 
 happy moods, when the spell of his religious 
 genius was on him, sentiment flowed from him 
 as naturally and as unconsciously as the waters 
 glide. 
 
 His delivery was rather earnest than passion- 
 ate. He had a deep, strange, rich voice, which 
 he knew how to use. His eyes were extraor- 
 dinary in every sense of the word, with won- 
 derful impressiveness. "There were persua- 
 sion," it has been said, "and argument, in his 
 very look : his eyes were living sermons, ' known 
 and read of all men.' That peculiar shake and 
 nod of the head, when he was addressing his 
 congregation, were the promptings of a deep- 
 settled conviction of the unbounded importance 
 
BEOINNING OF EIS MINISTRY. 89 
 
 of the truth advocated by an earnest soul." 
 Cahn as was his manner, and closely as he con- 
 fined himself to his notes, his delivery produced 
 a marked impression. "In an experience," Mr. 
 Mayo says, " of twenty years of professional 
 life, ia which I have heard almost every great 
 American preacher, I have never been so affected 
 as by those early discourses. I have never seen 
 large and appreciative congregations so. en- 
 tranced by sermons as were these to which he 
 spake." 
 
 There were occasions when his feelings were 
 stirred, and he became emphatically the impas- 
 sioned orator. An instance occurred in an ex- 
 tempore speech he made, as he was passing the 
 day with his society in a grove in the country. 
 He was in his best mood ; and , berag called upon 
 for a word, he spoke of the sublime doctrine 
 of universal Providence, and drew inspiration 
 from the sky and the landscape, the trees and 
 the flowers, the singing of the birds, and all 
 the varied music of Nature. He poured forth 
 strains of surpassing eloquence. He was re- 
 quested to write out this speech ; but he replied, 
 
90 THOMAS 8TAKB KING. 
 
 that it was not worth the trouble : besides, he 
 could not remember it ; saying, " I wish I could 
 speak extempore." No persuasion that he had 
 the orator's gift could induce him to speak from 
 the desk without notes. Except on social occa- 
 sions, or taking part in ordinations, perhaps he 
 did not trust himself to do it, in a single in- 
 stance, until the progress of his work in Cali- 
 fornia. 
 
 He discharged the pastoral offices with un- 
 wonted grace and dignity. No one could better 
 lighten up a season of joy. Ilis presence in the 
 social circle was ever like sunshine ; and he 
 would enter with boy-like glee into the spirit of 
 a happy occasion. A deep sympathy, spring- 
 ing from fountains of feehng born of his expe- 
 rience, rendered his ministrations in seasons of 
 sorrow uncommonly solemn. He attended faith- 
 fully to a Bible class in the Sunday school; was 
 present in the meetings of the benevolent asso- 
 ciation attached to his society; and aimed to 
 promote the general prosperity of his charge. 
 The pastoral connection appeared to be mutu- 
 ally happy and profitable. 
 
BEQINNINO OF HIS MINISTRY. 91 
 
 On the invitation of the city authorities of 
 Charlestown, Mr. King delivered, in 1847, an 
 address on the Seventeenth of June. He used 
 much of the thought of the Fourth-of-July 
 oration which he delivered two years before. 
 It was an analysis, acute and profound, of the 
 principles involved in the American Revolution. 
 He laid down, as the formula of this great 
 movement, freedom as an idea ; and not merely 
 political freedom, but moral and spiritual, 
 limited only by the law of right. This was 
 the idea symbolized in the rattling musketry 
 of Bunker Hill ; and he went on in an ex- 
 haustive manner to urge that it was the mission 
 of this nation to work out and work up this 
 idea in the various relations of society. It was 
 a noble utterance, and received the warmest 
 commendation. A distinguished scholar (Dr. 
 Osgood) has remarked on the contrast between 
 the almost boyish appearance of the orator and 
 the wisdom and depth with which he spoke : 
 "We remember hearing his Bunker-hUl ora- 
 tion on June 17, 1847, and being impressed 
 with the profound and exhaustive analysis which 
 
92 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 he then gave of the great principles which were 
 involved in the American Kevolution ; a treat- 
 ment of the subject which well became the pupil 
 of the great idealist. The youthful and almost 
 boyish appearance of the orator, which he re- 
 tained in a good measure through life, and on 
 which he expended many pleasantries, made the 
 contrast of the wisdom and depth with which he 
 spoke all the more noticeable. In the short 
 seventeen years since then, he has laid the 
 foundation and reared the superstructure of a 
 famous reputation, a lofty patriotism, an un- 
 tiring and whole-souled devotion to his church, 
 and a usefulness which has filled the mouths of 
 men from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He has 
 left a pure and brilliant record ; and few names 
 of his day will go down to posterity carrying 
 such a traditional renown for pulpit oratory and 
 splendid lectures as Starr King."* 
 
 He now made his dSbut as a lecturer. One 
 of his earliest efforts in this line was a dis- 
 course on Goethe, " the many-sided." It was 
 not a result of the cramming process. He had 
 
 * " Christian Inquirer," March 19, 1864. 
 
BEGINNING OF EIS MINISTRY. 93 
 
 studied the works of the great German for 
 years ; and, not unlikely, he talked the most of 
 it before he wrote a line. Its delivery marks an 
 event in his life. It drew attention to him out- 
 side of his parish. As he entered the lecture- 
 room, strangers were surprised at his boy-face, 
 and doubtful of his intellectual capacity; but 
 this vanished as a few sharply-put sentences 
 unfolded his grasp of the theme. His lecture on 
 Goethe received large commendation. When 
 delivered before the Mercantile-Library Asso- 
 ciation of Boston, it elicited warm tributes from 
 the press. It was said that the singular skill 
 with which the lecturer portrayed the character 
 of Goethe, the judgment passed on his failings, 
 the picture of his genius, the power of analysis, 
 the beauty of diction, the repose and yet fervor 
 of the delivery, made a marked impression on 
 the great audience, who listened with intense 
 interest, and in silence broken only by applause. 
 The lecturer met with much personal congratu- 
 lation. It was delivered in Cambridge ; and 
 Dr. Walker, who heard him for the first time, 
 said of it, that it was not merely remarkable 
 
94 THOMAS STABB KINO. 
 
 that so young a man should have given such 
 a lecture, but that anybody should have done 
 it. The critic may pronounce its views to be 
 sound or faulty, but will hardly question its 
 richness or originality.* 
 
 * " Mercantile-Libkary Association. — The lecture last 
 evening was delivered by Eev. Thomas S. King, of Charlestown. 
 His subject was ' Goethe,' the complex-minded German. Fully 
 comprehending the genius of the poet, and amply informed with 
 all the most important biographical incidents in the life of the 
 man, Mr. King came before the great audience assembled to hear 
 him, with the most satisfactory preparation. Goethe's literary 
 history began with his boyhood, and extended through a long line 
 of illustrious years ; so that the subject chosen was no unimpor- 
 tant or uninterested theme for interpretation. Viewed in his 
 outward, every-day life merely, this great man furnishes an ex- 
 ample of supremacy rarely to be met with in the annals of letters. 
 Mr. King began at the beginning (where, by the way, few lecturers 
 think it worth their while generally to commence) ; and, during 
 the whole of his admirable performance, received the undivided 
 attention of his hearers. Our limited space does not permit the 
 mention of even the heads of this eloquent discourse, while we 
 should be glad to give a full report of the entire address. Thor- 
 oughly in earnest with his subject, arranging his topics in a clear 
 and concise manner, handling disputed points of discussion in 
 the best taste, the lecture may be considered as one of the most 
 successful of this or any former course before the institution. 
 As an orator, Mr. King already ranks among the most effective 
 speakers ; and we may confidently look to him for similar future 
 efforts of rare excellence." — Evening Transcript. 
 
 " For upwards of an hour and a quarter, Mr. King held the 
 unbroken attention of a very large audience. His subject was 
 
BEOINNINa OF SIS MINISTRY. 95 
 
 The pastor had the satisfaction of seeing his 
 labors prosper. Young men found his pres- 
 entation of Christian truth to meet their wants ; 
 and, large, as the society was, it was growing. 
 So was his fame. Other societies of the Lib- 
 eral communion sought his services. An ear- 
 nest endeavor was made by Dr. Dewey's society 
 in New York to have him enter the Cambridge 
 
 'Goethe.' The character of this remarkable writer was poi^ 
 trayed with singular skill. His failings were judged rather than 
 condemned ; while his genius was displayed in vivid but discrimi- 
 nating colors. Hare powers of analysis, a true spirit of criticism, 
 copiousness and beauty of diction, in the lecturer, were joined 
 with elevation of thought, with imagination and candor. Mr. 
 King showed an easy power. There was nothing feverish, spas- 
 modic, youthful. What he said was thoughtful, well-sustained, 
 manly. His illustrations, drawn from other fields of literature, 
 were apt. His imagery was abundant. In his delivery there 
 was ease, distinctness, repose, and yet fervor. It was an uncom- 
 mon spectacle to behold so vast an audience hanging upon the 
 lips of one whose juvenile appearance revealed what has been 
 called 'the atrocious crime of being a young man.' It is a 
 source of happiness that one so young is so fiill, not only of 
 promise, but performance. May the performance of to-day be 
 but a promise of the future!" — Boston Cornier. 
 
 " The address was clothed in beautiful and eloquent lan- 
 guage, and adorned with the most appropriate imagery. It 
 gave evidence that its author, though young in years, was ripe 
 in judgment, and that he had made himself most intimately 
 acquainted with the writings of the great German poet." — 
 Mercantile Joamal. 
 
96 THOMAS STABR KINO. 
 
 Divinity School, in view of becoming their pas- 
 tor. The correspondence on this proposition 
 is not at hand. A salary large for a poor man, 
 a twelvemonth's season for uninterrupted study, 
 and an enviable location, were inducements ; 
 but the oiFer was declined. The manliness of 
 the young preacher in this matter was admira/- 
 ble. He received also a call from the Fourth 
 Universalist Chm-ch in New York, which he 
 laid before his society. He said (Dec. 21, 
 1847), "Many letters have been transmitted to 
 me, portraying the advantages to our cause, 
 and the cheering prospects of prosperity to the 
 society that would ensue, if I should consent to 
 accept the call. I cannot forbear to state, how- 
 ever, that my relations to the people with whom 
 I am now connected are of the most pleasant 
 nature, and that I am conscious of no desire 
 to seek a change of situation. The only reason 
 why I have allowed the matter to occupy the 
 attention of the society, springs from my pecu- 
 niary circumstances, and the greater calls in 
 prospect which I shall be compelled to meet. 
 The thought of leaving my present connection 
 
BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 97 
 
 is certainly a most painful one; but, in the 
 state of my affairs, I feel it to be a duty to 
 take counsel, not of my preferences alone, but 
 also of my necessities." He declined this call ; 
 and an addition was made to his salary. 
 
 He was favorably located, so far as his pur- 
 suits were concerned. He added largely to 
 his list of personal friends ; and, among others, 
 he made the acquaintance of Eev. Henry W. 
 BeUows of New York, and of Dr. Bartol of 
 Boston. He could enjoy the communion with 
 choice spirits which his nature required, and 
 the repose of life conducive to academic labor 
 and intellectual growth. His love of meta- 
 physical inquiry had now settled into a perma- 
 nent speciality. He had long felt the desire, 
 and perhaps had laid out a plan, for a wbrk 
 on philosophy, from an American stand-point, 
 which was certainly worthy of his genius and 
 ambition. He was now one of a large minis- 
 terial circle who met at each other's houses. 
 "Brother King," Rev. C. H. Leonard says, 
 " did much for this circle of students. When 
 others failed to be prepared, he was always 
 7 
 
98 THOMAS STAUB KINO. 
 
 ready with some interesting discourse or essay, 
 and was always prompt to meet the demand 
 when his time came to read. Indeed, I once 
 heard our revered Dr. Ballou say, ' Brother 
 King was the life of the meetings.'" He 
 continued a member of this circle for ten or 
 twelve years, and until its meetings were given 
 up. 
 
 Though successful in his parochial labors, he 
 encountered remarks which were grating to his 
 spirit. He labored in the place of his boyhood. 
 His rich mirthful vein ^cheerfulness which was 
 "like a bird's carol on the bough" — caused him 
 to be misunderstood. It was natural, that, sen- 
 sitive as he was, he should feel, in a profession 
 so peculiar, inward obstacles. Nor is it surpris- 
 ing that many should not have recognized the 
 prophet in his own land. No university crowned 
 him with its honors ; the circle of fashion could 
 hardly comprehend his transcendent merit ; no 
 great patrons sounded his fame ; and it seemed 
 to many not possible that Saul could step from 
 the local counting-room, the grammar-school, 
 or the navy-yard. Few really knew the inner 
 
BEGINNING OF EIS MINISTRY. 99 
 
 nature that nerved and moved his soul. The 
 wonder is, that so many saw and bowed before 
 his extraordinary gifts. 
 
 In the spring of 1848, the Committee of the 
 Hollis-street Society endeavored to obtain Mr. 
 King for their pastor ; and he gave their pro- 
 posals serious consideration. His frail frame 
 reeled under the labors and the anxieties of his 
 charge. " For some months past," he wrote to 
 his society, June 17, "as some of you are 
 aware, my health has been quite poor. It has 
 been impossible for me to perform the duties of 
 my office as they should be discharged; and, 
 of late, serious apprehensions have disturbed me 
 that I should be obliged to relinquish all labor 
 for a long time." His nervous prostration was 
 very serious. The liberality of a friend en- 
 abled him to make a voyage to Fayal, one of the 
 western islands of the Atlantic ; and the society 
 cheerfully complied with the request for a leave 
 of absence. On the 18th, he wrote to the 
 Hollis-street Society a declination of their lib- 
 eral and flattering call, and sailed the next day. 
 This sea-trip proved beneficial to his health, and 
 
100 THOMAS 8TABB KING. 
 
 renewed his strength. On his return, his spirit 
 was buoyant, and he seemed in pristine vigor 
 as he delivered a beautiful sermon on his ocean 
 experience, in which he paid the tribute, already 
 quoted,* to his friend, who had died during his 
 absence, — Mrs. Sarah C. E. Mayo. 
 
 The Committee of the HoUis-street Society 
 now renewed their invitation in a communica- 
 tion, enclosing a copy of votes which the pro- 
 prietors of the house had passed, inviting him 
 " to become minister and pastor of that society." 
 On the 6th of October, on accepting this call, 
 he said that the decision was not unattended by 
 pain and fear : of pain on severing a most 
 pleasant pastoral connection with a large and 
 prosperous society; and of fear at entering a 
 field untried, where the most faithful labor 
 might not seem success. He touched brief- 
 ly, but pointedly, on denominational matters ; 
 and closed with the heartfelt prayer that Heaven 
 might bless both pastor and people with a com- 
 mon and zealous faithfulness to the cause of the 
 
 * See page 74. 
 
BEGINNING OF HIS MINISTRY. 101 
 
 Redeemer.* On the next day, he announced 
 this acceptance to his society- ia a characteristic 
 letter, frank, warm, and beautiful. It cost him 
 a severe struggle to part with old friends and 
 the friends of his father, and it grieved them 
 to part with him. The society was strong, 
 healthy, and prosperous. It was in his way — 
 in his modesty and his under-estimate of him- 
 self — to write as to the course he felt compelled 
 
 * Chablestown, Oct. 6, 1848. 
 To the Committee of Hollis-street Society. 
 
 Gehtlemen, — It is my duty to acknowledge the receipt of a 
 communicatioii from you, enclosing a copy of votes passed by 
 the Proprietors of Hollis-street Meeting-house on Monday even- 
 ing last, by which I am invited " to become minister and pastor 
 of that society." 
 
 Though I did not anticipate, when my letter of June last, in 
 reply to a similar communication, was sent to you, that the invi- 
 tation would be renewed, my circumstances have so far changed, 
 that I have been able, of late, to give the subject more serious 
 consideration than formerly; and I have now to request thai you 
 will receive and announce to the society my acceptance of their 
 call. 
 
 It is right for me to say, that this decision is not unattended 
 by pain and fear. It severs a most pleasant pastoral connection 
 with a large and prosperous society, from whose members I have 
 received the most generous treatment, and which offers an ample 
 opportunity for Christian effort ; while it introduces me to a field 
 partially imtried, where even the most faithful labor may not 
 secure success. 
 
 The kind and liberal manner in which, gentlemen, you have 
 
102 TEOMAS STABS, KING. 
 
 to take : " It is but just to say, what indeed is 
 sufficiently obvious, that no cause of dissatisfac- 
 tion haa been furnished by the society ; neither 
 has any arisen out of its circumstances and con- 
 dition. Its prosperity is evident ; and I have 
 ever been treated by its members with kindness 
 and forbearance. They have been more faithM 
 to their duties than I to mine." He was em- 
 phatic in the statement that the step had not even 
 been taken in part by any change of religious 
 views. The society adopted a series of resolu- 
 
 been pleased to refer to my present position, encourages the hope, 
 that the relation which it is and ever will be my happiness 
 to sustain towards many brethren of a different name, though 
 scarcely of a different faith, from your own, will prove no barrier 
 to that entire harmony of feeling with your future pastor. 
 
 I am not conscious of any peculiarity of belief which ought 
 to prevent an acceptance of your invitation: the distinctive fea- 
 ture of Unitarian theology it has long been my joy to receive and 
 preach ; and it will be a great pleasure to me to be more nearly 
 united by position and social ties to those brethren of your de- 
 nomination with whom I have long enjoyed spiritual sympathy 
 and the fellowship of a common faith. 
 
 With the heartfelt prayer that Heaven will bless the connec- 
 tion to which we may now look forward, and that our common 
 and zealous faithfulness to the cause of the Redeemer, in our dif- 
 ferent spheres, may prove the means of a noble prosperity to our 
 church, I remam, very truly, your friend and brother, 
 
 T. S. KiKQ. 
 
BEQINNING OF HIB MINISTRT. 103 
 
 tions, cordially reciprocating the friendly senti- 
 ment of his letter, and expressing their heartfelt 
 wishes for his future prosperity and happiness ; 
 leavins: the decision with him as to the time 
 
 o 
 
 of the dissolution of the connection.* It was 
 
 » The following is Mr. King's letter: — 
 
 CHiELESTOWlI, Oct. 7, 1848. 
 
 To tbe Committee of the Universalist Society. 
 
 BuETHREN, — It is my duty to announce to you that I have 
 this week accepted an invitation to settle with the HoUis-street 
 Society in Boston ; and therefore, that at the expu-ation of three 
 months, or at an earlier date if it be thought mutually desu-able, 
 my pastoral connection with the Universalis! Society in this city 
 will cease. 
 
 The reasons which have induced me to take this step are 
 of such a nature, growing out of peculiar necessities and private 
 feelings which cannot be controlled, that they cannot properly be 
 stated at length, and could not, I fear, be appreciated by any who 
 do not fully know my circumstances, and the inward obstacles 
 with which, since my settlement, I have been obliged to contend. 
 Although the conflict of feeling in arriving at this decision has 
 been severe, I feel certain that the course which I have taken is 
 justified by motives, the force of which my conscience could not 
 evade, and to which I was compelled to yield. 
 
 It is but just to say, what indeed is sufficiently obvious, that 
 no cause of dissatisfaction has been furnished by the society; 
 neither has any arisen out of its circumstances and condition. 
 Its prosperity is evident ; and I have ever been treated by its 
 members with uniform kindness and forbearance. They have 
 been more faithful to their duties than 1 to mine ; and I cannot 
 forget, that to a large number of them I owe, in behalf of our 
 family, a debt of gratitude for generosity of earlier date than 
 that which has been extended directly to myself. I trust, there- 
 
104 THOMAS STARS KINO. 
 
 thought best that his labors in Boston should 
 not be delayed three months ; and, uttering an 
 affectionate parting word from his pulpit, on 
 the first Sunday in November, a month before 
 his installation, he began his eleven -years' 
 
 fore, brethren, you ■will feel assured, that, in spite of my convic- 
 tion that the labors of some other pastor would be better adapted 
 to and appreciated by a majority of the society, it is a, most 
 painful and trying thing for me to sever the tie which has bound 
 me to such faithful and cherished Mends. 
 
 Excuse me, also, if I state that this step has not been sug- 
 gested, even in part, by any change of religious views. If my 
 feelings and tendencies of thought have unfitted me for strong 
 sectarian sympathies, yet my confidence in the cardinal princi- 
 ples of Universalism, and the cheering prospect of the ultimate 
 triumph of good, remains unshaken ; and I trust it will be evi- 
 dent that my change of position will not weaken my attachment 
 to the Universalist denomination, nor remove me beyond the 
 cordial and most pleasant fellowship of my present associates in 
 the ministry. 
 
 Private considerations almost exclusively have urged and 
 compelled me to dissolve my present ties, and seek another field 
 of labor. The course may be misinterpreted by many; but I 
 feel confident that the motives by which it has been dictated are 
 such as God approves. 
 
 I pray you, brethren, in communicating to the society this 
 letter, which it has cost me so much pain to write, to assure them 
 that my most hearty prayer is for their spiritual welfare; and to 
 accept, on your own behalf, my gratitude for your firiendship and 
 counsel, and my warmest wishes for your personal prosperity 
 and happiness. Most truly your firiend and brother, 
 
 T. S. King. 
 
SEGINNINO OF HIS MINISTRY. 105 
 
 service as the minister of the Hollis-street 
 Society. 
 
 It is but simple justice to say, that Mr. 
 King's ministry had more than met the expecta- 
 tion of his friends, while he had been solidly 
 growing in character and intellectual power. 
 He had contributed freely to several periodicals, 
 and his philosophical papers had attracted much 
 attention in influential circles. Other papers, 
 less pretentious, show the blossoming of his 
 rehgious genius. His reputation was wide out- 
 side of his parish. In a word, to use Mr. 
 Mayo's language, " for two years he ministered 
 as few men have toiled; and, at their end, found 
 himself an acknowledged power in the head- 
 quarters of American theological culture." 
 
ELEVEN YEARS OF HIS MINISTRY. 
 
 HOMAS STARR KING was instaUed 
 the pastor of the Hollis-street Society 
 as he was about to enter on his twenty- 
 fourth birthday. In the ministry of the gifted 
 Holley, who has been called the most splendid 
 orator New England has produced, the society 
 enjoyed rare prosperity : it was now disabled 
 by dissension and disaster to such an extent, 
 that it was " a fragment whose very fibres were 
 bruised." These are Mr. King's words; and 
 he said, "If I had known the precise state of 
 the case, how few of the pews were owned or 
 even rented, how strong was the prejudice 
 against the church and the very building on 
 
 account of the long troubles, and how little 
 [106] 
 
ELEVEN TEARS OF MINISTRY. 107 
 
 hope of the future of the parish was felt out- 
 side of the committee that conducted the corre- 
 spondence with me, I could not have dared so 
 great a venture as an acceptance of the call."* 
 
 The installation ceremony took place on 
 Wednesday evening, Dec. 6. "The Trumpet" 
 says, " The council consisted of the pastors 
 and delegates of thirty-nine churches, four of 
 which were Universalist. We are not sure that 
 all the churches invited were present. Rev. 
 Dr. F. Parkman was elected moderator; and 
 Rev. Mr. Coolidge, scrihe. The candidate was 
 examined on several points : and, first, whether 
 he agreed with the Rationalists, so called, in 
 his views of the Scriptures ; and he gave such 
 answers as fully satisfied the council that his 
 mind had no bias of that nature. He was 
 then asked whether he believed that retribution 
 extended to the future world. To which he 
 repUed, that he had always held and preached 
 that the characters which men form in this life 
 are, the characters with which they enter the 
 future state. On being asked whether he be- 
 
 * Words at parting. 
 
108 THOMAS STAER KING. 
 
 lieved in the final triumph of holiness over all 
 sin, — the final and universal reign of goodness, 
 — he replied, that he did ; that he entered the 
 Universalist ministry because he believed that 
 doctrine, and that he should not have done so 
 had he not believed it." Dr. BaUou was a 
 member of this council, and was delighted with 
 the matter and the manner of his young friend, 
 in answering the questions that were put to 
 him. 
 
 The services in the church, on this occasion, 
 were uncommonly interesting. Dr. Frothing- 
 ham made the introductory prayer ; Dr. BaUou 
 read the Scriptures ; Dr. Dewey preached the 
 sermon ; Mr. Alger gave the fellowship of the 
 churches ; Mr. Bartol delivered the charge; and 
 Dr. Chapin made the address to the society. 
 There was an original hymn by Mrs. Caroline 
 M. Sav^er, wife of Rev. Dr. Sawyer, of New 
 York. The "Christian Eegister" of the 9th 
 of December says, " If the prayers oflPered, the 
 truths preached, the sympathies expressed, the 
 counsels given, the mutual duties stated, — in 
 a word, if the general spirit and tone of this 
 
ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY, 109 
 
 occasion shall have been heartily responded to 
 ^and we trust and believe that they were) by 
 both pastor and people, and shall mould their 
 relations to each other and to the world, — no 
 higher blessing need to be wished for the society 
 worshipping in Hollis Street. Dr. Dewey took 
 for his text, Eph. ii. 1 : 'And you hath he quick- 
 ened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.' 
 The preacher's subject was the condition of the 
 world in. sin, and the means of its recovery to 
 holiness. We trust that a performance so valu- 
 able ; so rich in the fruits of a large experience, 
 and in the views of a capacious mind ; so clear 
 ia its perceptions of what a minister and church 
 ought to be ; so comprehensive of the aims, and 
 so fuU of sympathy with the spirit, of Christ, — 
 will, with the right hand of fellowship, and the 
 noble charge of Mr. Bartol, and the eloquent, 
 catholic address to the people by Mr. Chapin, 
 be given to the public." 
 
 Many of his Charlestown society were present 
 on this occasion, and saw him affectionately 
 welcomed by a band of true and noble friends, 
 whose imwavering love and cordiality, in a 
 
110 THOMAS BTABB KING. 
 
 ministry of eleven years, he says, " made him 
 realize the words of Christian sympathy and 
 fellowship." So acceptable were his labors, 
 and so great was his reputation, that the society 
 had been increasing from the hour of his accept- 
 ance. He took a house in Dover Street ; and, 
 on his birthday (Dec. 17), he was united in 
 marriage with Miss Julia Wiggin, of East Bos- 
 ton; and the delights of a happy home were 
 joined to the pleasure of seeing his ministerial 
 work prosper. He had found a warm friend 
 in Dr. Bartol, who thus describes his appear- 
 ance : " He had the golden hair, and ruddy 
 complexion in a fair skin, which are thought 
 to betoken an uncommonly spiritual nature. A 
 singular modesty, gentle self-denial, and beam- 
 ing good-will, were in his countenance and air. 
 The sweetness of his voice, when he spoke, 
 added to the clear intelligence of every word ; 
 while attending the tones were looks so trans- 
 parent, that they served but for expression. 
 The fleshly features were only the channels by 
 which the immaterial inmate conveyed its wishes 
 and thoughts. So extreme, however, in him 
 
ELEVEN TEARS OF MINISTRY. Ill 
 
 was the impression of youth, that those who 
 saw him with me said, 'Why, he is a mere 
 boy ! ' But that boy was a man already, as 
 his whole deportment and discourse so signally 
 showed. He was a bright, consummate flower 
 of the UniversaHst faith." 
 
 It was natural that his ministerial breth- 
 ren of this persuasion should grieve to see the 
 ftuitage that might follow so beautiful a flower- 
 ing apparently destined to inure to the benefit 
 of the Unitarians. But he remarked in his let- 
 ter of resignation, that his feelings, and his ten- 
 dencies of thought, had unfitted him for strong 
 sectarian tendencies. This remark wfll be found 
 sustained by unstudied expressions of his private 
 letters for years, which have been cited; and 
 there is no evidence that his religious opinions, 
 so far as cardinal principles were concerned, 
 ever changed. The views he expresses in his 
 letters he was in the habit of freely uttering in 
 his conversation ; and while, undoubtedly, he 
 looked forward with pleasure to a nearer per- 
 sonal communion with the eminent men with 
 whom he had long enjoyed spiritual sympathy, 
 
112 THOMAS STABB KING. 
 
 he hoped that his change of position might not 
 remove him beyond the cordial fellowship of his 
 present associates. His long-entertained con- 
 victions, however, could be known but to few ; 
 and the feeling of regret at this change found 
 expression sometimes in unjust criticism. To 
 the last, he remained unfitted for strong secta- 
 rian sympathies ; aind he retained in its early 
 freshness his love for the liberal gospel. 
 
 He encountered criticism of a different kind 
 from another quarter. The " New-England 
 Puritan" said that the HoUis-street Society, 
 having been brought to the verge of dissolution, 
 heard of a Universalist preacher by the name 
 of King, who was a young man educated in 
 the common schools of Portsmouth and Charles- 
 town, and, about two years ago, was in some 
 business in the Navy Yard. This disparaging 
 notice drew from one, who says that he sat by 
 his side in the Charlestown schools, a spirited 
 plea in demurrer. Admitting the fact in its 
 fulness as to the schools, he reasoned that it did 
 not follow as a consequence that he was un- 
 worthy to occupy the HoUis-street pulpit. His 
 
ELEVEN TEARS OF MINISTRY. 113 
 
 reputation as a scholar and preacher was known 
 throughout the land ; one of the wealthiest 
 churches in New York sought to secure his 
 services ; and he had reached eminence solely 
 by his personal industry. " Plis scholastic at- 
 tainments," says Veritas,* "are of such a char- 
 acter and extent, as would be honorable to those 
 of far more advanced age ; his private char- 
 acter is above and beyond even the breath of 
 reproach ; and his social qualities are such as 
 involuntarily to endear him to all whose privi- 
 lege it is to come in contact with him." 
 
 I do not propose to give a history of the 
 ministry of Mr. King, — of his life in the pulpit 
 or in the homes of lus parish, or of his wider 
 life in the lecture-rooms of half the land, hig 
 Fourth-of-Jiily and other occasional efforts, and 
 his contributions to the periodicals. These la- 
 bors won him hosts of friends. The ripe in 
 years and the profound in learning, as well as 
 the young and unlettered, bore testimony to the 
 charm of his varied gifts in private and in pub- 
 lic. On leaving Charlestown, he thought and 
 
 * The article of " Veritas" appeared in the "Boston Post." 
 8 
 
114 THOMAS STARB KING. 
 
 talked mucli of the denominational aspect of 
 the step he was about to take ; but he also 
 made the great change in life from the compar- 
 ative repose of a beautiful self-culture to the 
 stir, hurry, and excitement, and the enjoyment 
 and exhaustion, of wide public service. This 
 was not his ideal. It was simply a necessity.* 
 He never embraced the dangerous notion, that 
 his faculties of themselves, without labor, would 
 carry him up to the great intellectual heights, f 
 A longing to renew his real disciphne appeared 
 to grow upon him. He looked forward to each 
 year as to a season of rest ; when, instead, there 
 came fresh calls and new responsibilities. "We," 
 Edwin P. Whipple says, in his beautiful tribute 
 to his genius, " were always after him to write, 
 to preach, to lecture, to converse ; we plotted 
 lovingly against his leisure; and, as long as 
 
 * In" Words at Parting," Mr. King says of "the lecture," 
 " I cannot regret that I have been drawn so widely into that field; 
 for it has been simply a necessity." 
 
 t Mr. King says, '■ The laws of the human mind are not sus- 
 pended or reversed m behalf of religious service. It requires 
 training and discipline and severe reflection to reach the highest 
 wallcs of theology, as much as it requires them to reach the 
 highest walk in any intellectual pursuit." 
 
ELEVEN TEABS OF MINISTBT. 115 
 
 there was a bit of life in him, we claimed it 
 with all the indiscriminate eagerness of exact- 
 ing affection. As soon as a thought sprouted 
 in Ms head, we insisted on having it ; and we 
 were all in friendly conspiracy to prevent his 
 exercise of that patient, concentrated, uninter- 
 rupted thinking which conducts to the heights 
 of intellectual power." * 
 
 Mr. King, however, always found time to 
 act out his moral nature. " He was frank, gen- 
 erous, and alive to every appeal to his feelings, 
 though with none of the morbid sensibility which 
 'weeps with those who weep,' but forgets to do 
 any thing to relieve suffering. " f He was always 
 ready to aid others to the best of his power. 
 He began this in Charlestown ; he improved 
 the opportunities as they multiplied in Boston ; 
 and thus he continued to act to the end of 
 his life. Dr. Bartol says, "I have known mild, 
 affectionate, tender-hearted, and accommodat- 
 ing persons, a great many, in my day ; but I 
 have never been acquainted with one who would 
 
 » Address at HoUis Street, April 3, 1864. 
 t Professor Tweed. 
 
116 THOMAS 8TABB KING. 
 
 go farther for you on his feet, toil harder or 
 more disinterestedly for you with his hands, or 
 sing the hymn of goodness he embodied in his 
 life more harmoniously to you with his lips."* 
 Eev. Edward E. Hale,f in his fine tribute to 
 Mr. King, says, " Somebody told me to-day, 
 who lived in the neighborhood of his home, of 
 the time when people came up and down Hollis 
 Street, and turned into Burroughs Place (Mr. 
 King purchased a house and lived here) , and 
 how they would ask where Mr. King lived. 
 Widows seeking for comfort and aid in support- 
 ing their families, poor students, and exiles who 
 could not speak a word of English, — aU. came 
 to see Mr. King, and, ringing the door-bell, 
 found entrance there; and always, as they came 
 back, the step was quicker which was slow be- 
 fore, the head was up which was down before, 
 and the lips wreathed in his smiles that were sad 
 before. That story tells us much of him. I 
 have gone there at all hours, morning, noon, 
 and night, and always found a welcome : al- 
 
 » "The Unspotted Life." 
 
 t Address at Hollis Street, AprU 3, 1864. 
 
ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 117 
 
 ways forgetting himself; willing to do any thing 
 you wanted him to do ; willing to do things 
 that he was not asked to do." 
 
 His private correspondence shows how near 
 his heart was the work of the ministry, and 
 how grateftd he was at the success which 
 crowned his labors. On the 1st of January, 
 1854, in wishing his confidential friend through 
 life, Mr. Eandolph Ryer, of New York, a happy 
 new year, he gives expression to sentiments 
 alike honorable to the giver and receiver : " We 
 are fast getting to be old fogies, Randolph. 
 Fourteen years since we met ! "What changes ! 
 what growths of mind ! what slippings from old 
 moorings ! what scootings-out from narrow cir- 
 cumstances, and little lakes of experience, into 
 wider bays, towards the great sea ! Little did 
 I imagine, fourteen years ago, that I should 
 ever have such a position of trust in the world 
 as Providence has gently lifted me up to by the 
 easiest inclined plane of continuous accident. 
 But here I am, a little wiser than then ; with 
 some serious purpose, I believe, hidden some- 
 where in my bosom ; with some little gratitude, 
 
118 THOMAS STARR KINO. 
 
 I trust, towards Providence, that has done so 
 much better than I deserve ; and with a love 
 for a few old friends, which I hope the year 
 1874, if it sees here, will find only riper ; and 
 which I pray may be perfected, if we shall have 
 then passed on. You, Kandolph, always be- 
 lieved that I would come to something, when I 
 did not dream that I had the capacity for adorn- 
 ing any pedestal. Your attachment has been a 
 great comfort to me : your friendship has been 
 pure enough to be accounted a choice privilege 
 in my life."* 
 
 During the period of his ministry iu Boston, 
 exciting national questions agitated the public 
 mind. On the days when it is customary for 
 clergymen to dwell on political subjects, he 
 spoke on them from the pulpit as he felt it his 
 duty to speak. Thus, iu 1852, he arraigned for 
 the first time the evil of slavery ; and in 1854, 
 on a Fast Day, in a sermon entitled " Precedents 
 and Principles," he pressed the formula of free- 
 
 * I am indebted to Mr. Ryer for the use of Beventy-two let- 
 ters, commencing in 1841, and continuing to the dose of Mr. 
 King's life. 
 
ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 119 
 
 dom as an idea, which he had developed ia his 
 early orations, to its logical results, and urged 
 its rigid application as the duty of the hour. 
 He was aware that these utterances were dis- 
 agreeable to a portion of his congregation, and 
 to some of his most cherished friends ; but he 
 felt that he could stand in no other than a free 
 pulpit, ia which he could be true to his convic- 
 tions of duty. His private correspondence, 
 during his whole ministry, shows that to be a 
 preacher of a liberal gospel was the ambition 
 of his life. He wrote, in 1855, "How we 
 do need good preaching ! Would that I could 
 preach extempore ! " 
 
 He defined his denominational position in a 
 speech which he made in FaneuU Hall, in 1858, 
 at the Annual Festival of the Universalists ; 
 having attended the Unitarian Festival the 
 previous week. He said, " Would that I might 
 be accepted here as the representative of a large 
 number of the Unitarian body, who, I Isnow, 
 are looking with peculiar interest to the move- 
 ments and prosperity of this large denomina^ 
 tion I The number is increasing among the 
 
120 THOMAS STARR KING, 
 
 Unitarians who feel and say that the two bodies 
 are called by Providence to serve the same 
 glorious ends. People often ask what the pre- 
 cise difference Is between the two parties. I 
 heard a gentleman say once, that the distance 
 between the two parties was the distance be- 
 tween two parlors of a house that were sepa- 
 rated by folding-doors. Both rooms are under 
 the same roof. One-half the folding-doors has 
 been thrown open : let the other half be rolled 
 back, that the company may be one, or that 
 there may be free passage. A friend of mine 
 asked me, not long ago, — the question is often 
 raised, — whether I am a tlniversaJist or a Uni- 
 tarian. I said to him, as I say here, that both 
 parties have essentially the same mission and 
 objects; that they ought to be indissolubly 
 united, even if they keep separate names, like 
 the Siamese twins; that I should be glad to 
 take any place as a small fibre in the ligamfint 
 that should join them ; and that I don't car© 
 whether they call me Chang or Eng. You have 
 heard, perhaps, Mr. Chairman, of the dispute 
 between the Universalist and the Unitarian lay- 
 
ELEVEN TEAMS OF MINISTRY. 121 
 
 man as to the theological difference between the 
 two parties, and of how the Universalist summed 
 it up. "The Universalist,' said he, 'believes that 
 God is too good to damn us for ever ; and you 
 Unitarians believe that you are too good to be 
 'damned.' Here is the whole controversy in a 
 nutshell. Both principles are admirably con- 
 densed in that witty sentence."* 
 
 Though the philosophical cast of his theology 
 subjected him to sharp criticism from a por- 
 tion of the Universalist clergy, and his inti- 
 macy with the eminent divines of the Unitarian 
 order absorbed much' of his time, yet he also 
 kept up cordial relations with his early minis- 
 terial brethren, and especially with Dr. Chapin 
 
 * This speech thus goes on, immediately after the quotation 
 of this witty sentence, to the end, as follows : — 
 
 " The Unirersalist puts God in the foreground of his creed. 
 The earth and our whole system, and the whole universe, are 
 bound to the throne, the law, the justice, the love, the heart, of 
 the Infinite Father; and we know that evil cannot rule in any 
 district of his realm for ever. And the Unitarian sees in every 
 man a spark, a breath, an effluence of the Infinite Life, which 
 cannot lose its gravitation to its source, and which is the pledge 
 of its return, if it exists for ever, to consecration and loyalty. On 
 the characteristic principle of either sect, everlasting suffering 
 cannot be true. 
 
 " How mean and sad, therefore, are jealousies and strifes be- 
 
122 THOMAS STABS KING. 
 
 and Dr. Ballou. His confidential intercourse 
 with Dr. Ballou continued. About the time he 
 inade the speech from which I have made free 
 citations, he felt moved, he said, to go down 
 into Gehenna ; and he sought the guidance of 
 
 tweeB the two organizations ! I stood in this hall on Tnesday 
 evening, when the Unitarians held their festival, and listened 
 with great interest to some remarkable words from the lips of a 
 man whose face was dyed deep olive by the sun of Hindostan, 
 and whose eyes burned with the pagsion and imagination of 
 India. He was a Brahmin convert of a Unitarian missionary, 
 and had just arrived here two days since. His name is Jogut 
 Chunder Gunkooli. He alluded in his speech to the surprise he 
 felt, when, after his first interest in Christianity, a missionary in 
 India warned him not to be baptized by a Presbyterian, but to be 
 received by himself into the only true church, — the Church of 
 England. Said the Brahmin, in perplexity and amazement, 
 'What is Presbyterian? what is Church of England? I do not 
 know these words : I want to leave idolatry, and be a Christian.' 
 Z^ere was a base line for you, — six thousand miles of space, 
 and a Hindoo brain at the other end, to measure the altitude and 
 digniiy of the quarrel between two rival forms of church govern- 
 ment in Great Britain ! 
 
 " Well, brethren, we are set before the future to do something 
 to make a noble and complete theology possible in the new ages 
 that are opening. To the Universalist is especially committed 
 the doctrine of God's love; to the Unitarians, the worth of human 
 nature, and intellectual liberty in the criticism and appreciation 
 of Scripture and inspiration. Both parties are facing the future 
 with germ-truths ; the future, which is longer and more precious 
 to Providence than the past, and in which the presence and in- 
 spiration of the spu'it, that are never denied to the race, will be 
 
ELEVEN TEARS OF MINI8TBT. 123 
 
 his early friend, Dr. Ballou, before all other 
 guidance; "knowing," he says, "that, in his 
 society, I should be safe from evil spirits." As 
 this visit proved eventful, it may be proper 
 briefly to dwell on it. 
 
 shown in the giving of more theological truth, as well as in the 
 supply of religious vitality. How will the differences and contro- 
 versies and jealousies between Unitarians and Universalists look 
 a few thousand years hence? Will they jut up prominent and 
 respectable over the common work for the reform of theology and 
 the quickening of humanity in which they are equally engaged ? 
 Let us seek such a stand-point, now and then, in fancy, to survey 
 our divisions. 
 
 " The astronomers tell us, Mr. Chairman, that there are cen- 
 tres of systems in the far deeps of space, composed of two suns, 
 instead of one such as our planets obey. These twin-suns are 
 generally of different and complementaxy colors. Still further, 
 sir, astronomy assures us, that, while our globe and its fellow-orbs 
 are circling around onr sun, the sun himself and the whole sys- 
 tem are sweeping around some fer-off, common centre of the 
 universe, — perhaps one of those wondrous pairs of stars that 
 blaze and flash upon the confines of immensity. So I think the 
 parties that now bend around different theological centres are all 
 moving in a larger orbit than many of ns imagine, — around a 
 centre hidden as yet, and for the most part unsuspected. The 
 future will reveal it. And it seems to me that the central energy 
 which is drawing and will harmonize all our movements will be 
 disclosed as the twin-truths to which the Unitarian and Univer- 
 salist bodies are bearing witness now, but globed in mightier 
 mass and richer splendor than our poor interpretations give, — 
 the red and green of fraternal suns, — publishing the glory of 
 God's love, and the priceless worth of humanity." 
 
124 TSOMAS STAJRR KINO. 
 
 It happened that Dr. Nehemiah Adams, one 
 of the ablest and most respected clergymen of 
 Boston, preached in his own church a sermon 
 on eternal punishment ; which Mr. King went 
 to hear, and then invited the doctor to repeat 
 at Hollis Street ; feeling sure that it would do 
 the side of the liberal Christians good, "by 
 showing," he says, "what Orthodoxy does to a 
 sincere, able, and sweet-spirited man, when it 
 organizes in him, and strikes through and 
 through his nature." Dr. Adams accepted the 
 invitation. The church was thronged ; and, af- 
 ter its delivery, they had in the pulpit a fiiendly 
 conversation on doctrinal points.. "It was a 
 glorious time," he writes : " we parted the best 
 of friends, and I hope to have many a good 
 talk with him." Mr. King answered this ser- 
 mon in two discourses, which were printed. 
 Diiring their preparation, he consulted Dr. Bal- 
 lon, both by letter and by visits to the doctor's 
 residence ; and his counsel was the guidance 
 Mr. King so generously acknowledged. The 
 note is so peculiar, that it seems to require a 
 brief recital. 
 
ELEVEN TEAB8 OF MINISTRY. 125 
 
 Dr. Ballou, then the President of Tufts Col- 
 lege, had removed his residence from the centre 
 of Medford to "Walnut HUl, where the new- 
 institution is located, which is in the centre of 
 a panorama of surpassing natural beauty ; and 
 at this time he was editing the " Quarterly Ee- 
 Tiew." A succession of elaborate articles in the 
 review, by Mr. King, during the period of the 
 Hollis-street ministry, attests the closeness of 
 their Htefary intercourse. Their correspond- 
 ence, when Mr. King was at Charlestown, was 
 of the most familiar and playful character. In- 
 deed, Dr. Ballou was accustomed to write let- 
 ters of this nature to Mr. King's father, who 
 carried them in his pocket, and read them with 
 hearty laughter to his friends ; and their rich 
 vein of humor never failed to entertain".* Dr. 
 
 * There mast be many of these letters with the private pa- 
 pers of Mr. King, among which are his father's manuscripts. I 
 am indebted to Professor Tweed, who resides near the late resi- 
 dence of Dr. Ballou, for one which he received on a winter morn- 
 ing, when the snow had blocked the roads round Walnut Hill, and 
 the New-England staple, salt fish, was in request, — a dinner of 
 which, by the way, John Hancock used to invite his friends to eat 
 on Saturdays. Dr. Ballou was induced to celebrate the virtues of 
 this famous dish in verse. On reading the following lines to Mrs. 
 
126 THOMAS STASR KINO. 
 
 Ballou was In the habit of sending such things 
 also to Dr. Chapin and others. Sometimes 
 they would be in verse, and sometimes written 
 in half a dozen languages. I have not seen 
 one of these things in print. The circle of 
 friends was public enough for him. 
 
 Ballou, she asked, "What are you going to do with them?" 
 The doctor replied, "I shall send them to Professor Tweed." 
 " Why, they are silly," she said, " That's the reason I am going 
 to send them," he replied. They were put in an. envelope, and 
 left at Mr. Tweed's door. Mr. King remarked of them, that, had 
 they been written by Leigh Himt, for humor, versification, and 
 fancy, they would have been considered as one of his best effusions. 
 
 Staple food on Walnut Hill ! 
 Tictual-fund, for drafts at vill! 
 Ready in all exigents, 
 Minute-man of esculents ! 
 Substitute for every dish, — 
 Hail, all hail to thee. Salt Fish ! 
 
 When the rain comes pouring donra, 
 And no market-carts from town ; 
 Nought abroad but roaihig gale, 
 Sttvoming hills, and flooded vale, — 
 " What for dinner do you wish ? " 
 Asks the wife. The same, — Salt Fish. 
 
 When the printer's smothering blow 
 
 Drifts the roads, fence-high, with snow. 
 
 Shrouding Nature all in vhite. 
 
 As for her funereal rite, — 
 
 If a dinner-thought intrude 
 
 On our awful solitude, 
 
 Can we feel blue devilish .' 
 
 Blest resourse ! there's some Salt Fish. 
 
ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 127 
 
 This will explain the wording of the following 
 note to Dr. Ballon, who was the author of that 
 careful and admirable work, "The Ancient His- 
 tory of Universalism : " — 
 
 Mt dear De. B., — Boston, May 11, 1858. 
 
 The Great Hosee, — 
 
 , I have been re-reading lately a celebrated work 
 by some learned and perverse heretic of the last 
 
 Bain nor snow nor cold nor heat 
 
 May disturb our high, retreat : 
 
 All within is cheery still 
 
 In OUT homes on Walnut Hill. 
 
 Does a &iend or guest drop in 
 
 Just about the hour to dine ? 
 
 Though the larder's void, what matters ? 
 
 Out with cups and knives and platters ; 
 
 Help him, till no more he wish, 
 
 Prom thy bounty, Salt Fish ! 
 
 Thou of eatables the chief, — 
 Whether called Atlantic beef, 
 Mutton caught at Newfoundland, 
 Poultry from the ocean-strand, 
 Yenison from the shoaly banks^ — 
 Still for thee we render thanks, 
 thou universal dish ! 
 Hall, all hail, to thee, Salt Fish ! 
 
 Blessings on thy face antic^ue, 
 Mummy ichthyologic, 
 Drawn from cares beneath the tides 
 Older than the Pyramids ! 
 What a wondrous power thou hast, 
 That can make us feast and fast, 
 Blending lean Mid hungry Lent 
 With Carnival incontinent, 
 Making all days Fridayish, 
 Thaumaturgi^ Salt Fish I 
 
128 THOMAS STARS KING. 
 
 century, to whom the gods had not denied the gift 
 of a most excellent English style ; to wit, " The 
 Ancient History of Universalism." I find that my 
 principles have become somewhat corrupted by tlie 
 show of fairness and erudition and the insidious style 
 of the awful volume. After perusing it, I am in 
 doubt touching the doctrine and lo^c of Rev. Dr. 
 Nehemiah South-side Calvin Adams. 
 
 Tet I fear to trust myself unreservedly to the 
 statements and implications of a book evidently 
 written by an oily and plausible but reckless and 
 godless man. How much better to be under the 
 guidance of a sleek and serious Christian, who does 
 not tamper with the Holy Word, and who admires 
 the arrangements of this world as the neat and 
 symmetrical portico of hell ! 
 
 Yet three points in the wily volume above men- 
 tioned disturb me, and forbid that serene yielding of 
 my intellect to the influence of the saintly and cheer- 
 ing Nehemiah, which seems so advisable. The 
 treacherous writer asserts (p. 45) that the Sibylline 
 Oracles use the word " everlasting " concerning the 
 punishment of the wicked, — still teaching universal 
 restoration. Also (p. 88) that an old scamp, a spu- 
 rious Capon Christian, an Egyptian gelding, — the 
 father (so far as a wretch in his situation can be 
 called father, in a correct use of language), at any 
 rate, the Origen, of Universalism, — used the same 
 
ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 129 
 
 word-touching the overhauling which scoundrels will 
 experience in the life to come. Still further, the 
 pestilent book affirms (pp. 179, 180) that Gregory 
 of Nyssa knew so little of Greek as to use " ever- 
 lasting" again of temporal discipline; and also that 
 the wicked are to be saved by means of everlasting 
 purgation. 
 
 Now, I cannot think that the writer of the vol- 
 ume, or even these old numskulls, are to be trusted 
 against Dr. Adams. But I do want to know, before 
 I settle finally into a poor opinion of their scholar- 
 ship, whether it is the word aionios, which in three 
 instances they so ignorantly apply to that punish- 
 ment which ... is to be literally unending. Can 
 yoTi inform me touching this matter ? If you have 
 any knowledge of the puerile but pernicious publi- 
 cation referred to, will you drop me a line as soon 
 as possible? and believe me, 
 
 Yours in suspense, T. S. King. 
 
 I am to preach a sermon next Sunday evening, in 
 which I wish to use the fact. 
 
 I am informed that Mr. King received Dr. 
 Ballou's criticisms on the reply to Dr. Adams 
 while it was in manuscript. Mr. King, with 
 characteristic frankness and generosity, ac- 
 knowledged his indebtedness to his friend in 
 9 
 
130 THOMAS STAER KINO. 
 
 this matter, in a speech which he made in the 
 following June, at the Annual Universalist Fes- 
 tival in Faneuil HaU. " Recently, sir," he said, 
 "I have been associated with. him (Dr. Ballou) 
 in a most singular and important way. You 
 know that Dante, when he wished to make his 
 imaginative descent into hell, obtained the guid- 
 ance of the spirit of Virgil. He felt sure that 
 no harm could befall hiTn in those dreadful re- 
 gions, if the pale and cultured poet should attend 
 him through its awful circles. Well, sir, recent- 
 ly, under the stimulus of a celebrated Orthodox 
 preacher in my naghborhood, I desired to look 
 into the dreadful regions of the imder-world. 
 I felt moved to go down into Gehenna. Not 
 daring to go alone, I obtained the guidance of 
 Dr. Ballou, knowing that in his society I should 
 be safe from evil spirits. To my amazement, 
 when we reached the place where Gehenna 
 should begin, it was gone. It seemed to be 
 scattered, dissipated, swept into nonentity, by 
 the magic of his" clear and penetrative eye. 
 There was no lower jail beneath the earth for 
 the torment of imprisoned souls. We found 
 
ELEVEN TEARS OF MINI8TBT. 131 
 
 that the world was round ; that there waa sun- 
 light and air beneath it as above it ; that Ge- 
 henna was a Rabbinic myth ; and that the globe 
 was roDing through a universe pervaded by 
 God's law, and everywhere luminous with his 
 love." 
 
 Mr. King's two discourses in reply to Dr. 
 Adams were published under the title of " The 
 Doctrine of Endless Punishment, for the Sins 
 of this Life, Unchristian and Unreasonable." 
 They were widely noticed by the press, and 
 elicited elaborate criticism. They were received 
 with favor by one portion, of Universalists. 
 The " Quarterly "—not then edited by Dr. Bal- 
 lon — said of ^em, " We find that an old topic 
 seems new, when treated by a thinker, from 
 whose mind fresh statements, new illustrations, 
 and poetic imagery, come as the overflow of a 
 fountain which is always being replenished." 
 The " Trumpet," however, objected to the way 
 in which Mr. King handled the argument from 
 texts in support of universal restoration ; and 
 its editor elaborated his criticism in an article in 
 the " Quarterly." The " American Theological 
 
132 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 Eeview " (Orthodox) as earnestly controverted 
 Mr. King's positions as to things vital in the 
 Orthodox creed. I pass over theological points. 
 Both of these articles recognized the position 
 which Mr. King had reached as a man, a lec- 
 turer, and a preacher. The TJniversaUst critic 
 (Rev. Thomas Whittemore) wove a brief re- 
 view of his life into his animadversions, saying 
 that he was a remarkable man; that he had 
 great knowledge for his years ; that he had a 
 peculiarly philosophical mind, and had studied 
 the modem languages ; that he had read the 
 philosophers of Germany and France as well as 
 of England and the United States ; and that he 
 embraced TJniversalism as a philosophy rather 
 than as a revelation. "Soon after his settle- 
 ment in Charlestown," the editor of the " Trum- 
 pet " said, " he began to attract a large share of 
 public attention. One or two secular and patri- 
 otic lectures, which he delivered on public occa- 
 sions, gave scope for his poetic conceptions, 
 beautiful style, and his eloquence ; and thus 
 largely increased his fame." The critic in the 
 "Theological Eeview," in remarking on "the 
 
ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 133 
 
 intellectual habit, taste, or genius, or whatever 
 it was," which secured for Mr. King " his un- 
 rivalled popularity," said that " he was known 
 and esteemed as a very brilliant rhetorician." 
 " He astonishes," the " E«view " says, " and 
 charms his hearers by a rare mastery over sen- 
 tences.. He is a skilful word-marshal ; and 
 who does not like to see a fine muster ? Hence 
 his popularity as a lyceum-lecturer. However 
 much of elegant leisure the more solid and 
 instructive lecturers may have, Mr. King is 
 always wanted. He is, in some respects, the 
 most popular writer and preacher of the two 
 denominations which he equally represents ; be- 
 ing a sort of soft ligament between the Chang 
 of Universalism, and the Eng of Unitarianism, 
 with the largest liberties of both ; drawing from 
 the best life of both, and shedding back upon 
 each, with judicial impartiality, his coruscation 
 of words, and showers of pearls. We are con- 
 fident he will acknowledge the justness of the 
 compliment, even if he objects to this public 
 method of oflfering it, when we call him a grand 
 master of style." 
 
134 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 The article suggests a remark on Mr. King's 
 rhetoric. In early life, he was in the habit of 
 expressing admiration of Daniel Webster " as 
 a grand master of style :" his taste was for the 
 simplest mode of expression ; and he aimed 
 at ease and clearness. Some of his later pro- 
 ductions evince want of care, and indicate his 
 hurried way of hfe. It is remarked by Pro- 
 fessor Tweed, that Mr. King's images were not 
 the dress, but the body, of thought. " Every 
 thing in Nature," Mr. Tweed says, "was to him 
 but a type of some spiritual truth. The awe 
 inspired by mountain-scenery was immediately 
 translated to reverence. A scene of beauty 
 was the smile of God. . It was not lack of 
 imagination, but only the white light of his 
 intellect, that prevented his being a poet. His 
 power of expression exceeded that of any other 
 man with whom I was ever acquainted ; and 
 the beauty of his style was inseparable from the 
 sentiment of which it was a part. His images 
 were aU illustrations, — not the dress, but the 
 body, of thought ; and the severest taste would 
 find it difficult to prune without constantly 
 
ELEVEN TEAMS OF MINISTBT. 135 
 
 touching the quick." While the irony of the 
 "Review" was going through the press, Mr. 
 King addressed the following note to Dr. Bal- 
 lou, which has something about style : — 
 
 Boston, Oct. 15, 1858. 
 
 Mt dear Doctor, — I received the October 
 number of the " Universalist Quarterly " yesterday, 
 and was made wiser and happier by reading your 
 article on the " Doctrine of Necessity." It is a noble 
 and masterly paper, — really a thoroughly artistic 
 piece of work in the reasoning line ; not a specimen 
 of logic, but of reasoning. It puts me in mind of 
 those costly gold chains which fasten gentlemen's 
 watches to the vest-button, — firm and heavy as a 
 solid piece of metal, yet linked so finely, that it is 
 supple, elastic, and graceful along the whole hue. 
 
 Really, it gives me joy to see such consummate 
 workmanship in our days of -flippant composition 
 and sleazy thought. I don't know anybody in New 
 England whose handling of the profound elementary 
 questions of religious philosophy is so nearly kindred 
 with the sinewy masters of English thought. One 
 could pass from your writing to Bishop Butler's 
 without any feeling of stepping down a mental plane. 
 As to patience, absence of all pretence, and easy 
 command of domestic and sturdy Saxon, your philo- 
 sophie papers revive my admiration of the style of 
 
136 THOMAS 8TAJRB KING. 
 
 Hume's " Essays ; " which, as to mere style, have 
 always seemed to me models (I mean Sceptic, not 
 Thaumaturgus, Hume). 
 
 Are there any of the Universalist dalliers with 
 " Necessity " capable of seeing how thoroughly you 
 have consumed their system, smoke and all? The 
 completeness of your demolition, — if we are to trust 
 the primal beliefs and intuitions of our nature, — and 
 the method of doing it, by slowly and accurately 
 evolving the system itself into symmetry, give me 
 a rich and humorous satisfaction. It is judicial and 
 juicy. 
 
 Hoping to see you before long, either here or in 
 Medford, I am, as ever, 
 
 Yours, T. S. King. 
 
 Mr, Eng was now connecting Hs name with 
 ravine and valley, with pool and flume and 
 notch, and every peak, of the far-famed White 
 Hills. He passionately loved the sea and the 
 mountain. "See him," Dr. Bellows says, "at 
 the mountains and on the sea-shore, — and he 
 was almost an equal lover of hoth, — and you 
 would take him for some enthusiastic devotee 
 of scenery ; or some rapt naturalist, who had 
 spent his whole life in studying shells or mosses 
 
' ELEVEN TEARS OF MINISTMY. 137 
 
 or algas ; or with whom the stars, the clouds, 
 and the shadows were the only subjects of 
 worthy meditation."* Such was his religious 
 genius, that he had more than a mere sesthetic 
 eye* The awe inspired by the grand in Nature 
 was translated into reverence ; the scene of 
 beauty, into the smile of God.f 
 
 He first visited the White Hills at the age of 
 thirteen, probably with his father ; but I have 
 no facts as to this visit. His intimacy with 
 Dr. BaUou imdoubtedly cherished a love of 
 this remarkable region. The doctor was also 
 an etithusiast for moutitain-scenery. He had 
 made himself famiHar with all the great ranges 
 of the earth : he knew the Alps so accurately, 
 before his visit to themj that, Mr. King re- 
 marked, he could probably have told precisely 
 where he was if he had been dropped from 
 a balloon into some one of the passes or val- 
 leys of Switzerland; and he repeatedly visit- 
 ed and minutely observed the "White Hills. 
 He embodied in his " Quarterly " for April, 
 
 * Dr. Bellows's Discourse, May 1, 1864. 
 t Professor Tweed- 
 
138 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 1846, his fondness for them, in a beautiful and 
 eloquent paper. On this subject I know no- 
 thing, which had appeared, superior to it ; and 
 well remember Mr. King's enthusiasm for the 
 White Hills at the time of its publication. 
 
 I have no memorial of any visit he may have 
 made to ttiis region prior to 1849 ; an account 
 of which he described in two letters addressed 
 to Mr. Randolph Eyer. They are too charac- 
 teristic to be omitted : — 
 
 Boston, July 30, 1849. 
 Mr DEAB Randolph, — You are probably aware 
 that it is some time since I wrote to you. ... I have 
 been to the White Mountains. ... I started a week 
 ago last Thursday morning, in company with Mr. 
 Tweed. ... At Lowell, we found two other gentle- 
 men ; . . . and we kept together happily until our 
 return. About noon of that day, we arrived on the 
 shore of Lake Winnipiseogee ; which, in the Indian 
 tongue, means " the smile of the Great Spirit." The 
 name is most appropriate ; for more lovely scenery 
 than meets the eye, as you cross the lake in the little 
 steamer, certainly cannot be found on this glorious 
 planet. All the way it is equal to the most picturesque 
 views which the Hudson affords. "We arrived at 
 Centre Harbor, a little village which skirts the head 
 
ELEVEN YEABS OF MINISTRY. 139 
 
 of the lake, in season for dinner ; and remained there, 
 from choice, all night There is a fine solitary moun- 
 tain in this village, called Eed Hill, .2,500 feet high, 
 and quite steep, which we ascended on Friday morn- 
 ing ; and the view from which amply repays the delay 
 in the journey, and the exhaustive toil of a two-houra' 
 ascent. Just think of going up ten Bunker-hUl Mon- 
 uments, piled one upon another, and without stone 
 steps cut regularly to facilitate the ascent ! On Friday 
 afternoon, at three o'clock, we started in an over- 
 loaded stage for Conway, which is thirty-four miles 
 from Centre Harbor. The road is rather difficult 
 for stage-travel, especially when there are seventeen 
 people in and on a stage that carries nine inside, 
 each person having a large trunk : but some of the 
 views are grand ; for the road lies in a valley that 
 is flanked by the Ossipee and the Sandwich ranges 
 of hills. "We didn't travel much over four miles an 
 hour ; and nine o'clock at night found us at the vil- 
 lage of Ossipee, thirteen miles from Conway. Here 
 we enjoyed two delightful classes of sensations. The 
 first was experienced at the supper-table : the last 
 was of a rarer and a higher kind. The highest and 
 last summit of the Ossipee range overlooks the little 
 tavern where we stopped. The top is quite round ; 
 and, upon its whole surface, the woods were on fire I 
 Thunder-clouds overhung the mountain, so that it 
 was dark as Egypt; and, standing 2,500 feet be- 
 
140 THOMAS 8TABB KINO. 
 
 neath, we saw the glare and smoke of the cone, 
 which seemed the crater of a mad volcano, that was 
 about to pour flaming desolation on the valley be- 
 neath. It was a sight never to be forgotten. In 
 spite of the darkness, danger; and rain, we. kept on 
 for Conway, which we reached at half-past eleven ; 
 and where, notwithstanding the damp, sultry heat, 
 and the bed-bugs, we slejSt soundly till morning. I 
 ought to say, however, that three miles of the road, 
 from Ossipee to Conway, is through the woods; 
 and, for more than a mil6, the trees and brush each 
 side of the stage were burning and falling as we 
 passed. It was a glorious sight ; none the less ex- 
 citing from the imminent danger, at times, of great 
 pine-trees, falling, as they burned, across the stage or 
 the path. Fourth-of-July fireworks are nothing to 
 the pyrotechny of hemlock-trees, when the blaze 
 Strikes their foliage, and wreathes them with flame. 
 On Saturday morning, we left Conway for the 
 Notch in the White Mountains, ■ — - about twenty- 
 four miles. Fog hung around the distant summits, 
 so that we lost the grandest views which this ride 
 affords; but it was Wild and inspiring enough as 
 we saw it ; and about noon we began to be hemmed 
 in by crags, and lines of peaks, which prevented 
 any view for more than a mile ahead< It was after 
 dinner, in the afternoon, that we reached the Notch ; 
 and here a person might as weU drop the pen. To 
 
ELEVEN TEARS OF MINISTRY. 141 
 
 any one who has not seen wild mountain-scenery, 
 language has no measures of meaniflg that will repre- 
 sent the physical grandeur and the strange impres- 
 sions that break at once upon the eye and the soul 
 in a spot like that. All rhetoric is out of place j and, 
 if it were not, it would be baffled. It is the place 
 to read the Psalms and the Book of Isaiah ; to feel 
 our insignificance, and the glory of the Creator. As 
 you approach the Notch, the mountains seem to bar 
 all further progress ; when suddenly a turn in the 
 road leads you between two mountains, that sweep 
 quite sharply down to the same point at the base. A 
 little further on, the valley widens some ; and, for a 
 mUe on either side, ridges that are perfectly level on 
 the top, and whose barren sides are almost perpen- 
 dicular, line the path, and look down with a steady 
 frown. Thunder-clouds rested upon all the moun- 
 tains in the vicinity, as we approached the Notch ; 
 and, just after we entered, one peal of thunder rolled 
 along the summit of the right'hand ridge, nearly- 
 3,000 feet above us, with a dead, hollow sound, like 
 a ball of lead that weighed a hundred tons. We 
 were standing directly in front of the WUley House, 
 near which, in 1826, the Willey Family were over- 
 whelmed by the awfiil land-slide, which came at mid- 
 night, during a terrible tempest, and ruined every 
 thing around but the cottage, above which it divided, 
 and which it spared. They ran from the bouse for 
 
142 THOMAS 8TABB KINO. 
 
 safety, and were buried in thirty feet of rocks and 
 gravel. Never again do I expect to have such feel- 
 ings overpower me as all the scenes and associations 
 at the Notch conspire to excite in a soul that is at aU 
 capable of being moved. 
 
 We passed through these wild passes to Craw- 
 ford's quiet Notch House, where we spent the sab- 
 bath. Eev. Mr. Thomas, of New Bedford, preached 
 in the parlor in the morning ; and, in the afternoon, 
 I walked back to the Willey House, and staid till 
 nearly dark. O God ! how wonderful are thy works ! 
 One passage of Scripture seems to be written on 
 every cliff, and- echoed to the soul from every ridge : 
 " Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever 
 thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from 
 everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." I have 
 not time nor room to write you of the ascent of Mt. 
 Washington, but will reserve it for to-morrow. I am 
 in fine health; and trusting that you are too, and 
 sending all manner of messages to our friends, I 
 
 am, until to-morrow, Yours truly, 
 
 Staeb. 
 
 Boston, July 31, 1849. 
 Mx DEAR Randolph, — Perhaps I am boring 
 you with this account of a journey into a region 
 where you never travelled: but it is pleasant to 
 write it ; and, if you do not go to California, (from 
 which Heaven preserve you !) I am determined that 
 
ELEVEN YEABS OF MINISTRY. 143 
 
 you shall go to the White Mountains another year. 
 The range which goes by the distinctive name of 
 the White Mountains consists of eight summits, 
 which rise directly back of the Notch House, and a 
 few miles north of the Notch itself. The highest of 
 these peaks is Mt. Washington, which is the fifth on 
 the range, and is 6,200 feet above the level of the 
 sea. The valley itself, however, from which the range 
 rises, is 2,000 feet above the ocean ; so that the real 
 height of Mt. Washington, above the ground where 
 it stands, is 4,200 feet. We started on our journey 
 Monday morning, July 23, at eight o'clock, on horse- 
 back. There were twelve of the party, — ladies and 
 gentlemen, and two guides. The first two miles of 
 the way is a steady and steep ascent through the 
 woods on the side of Mt. Clinton. The horses were 
 sure-footed, the air was delicious, and our spirits 
 were high. After gaining the rocky top of Clinton, 
 the summit of Mt. Pleasant rises about a mile ahead, 
 smoothed and arched precisely like the dome of our 
 Boston State House. Descending the peak of Clin- 
 ton, we wound around the head of Mt. Pleasant, 
 riding along the brink of precipices that made the 
 hair stand up, until we reached the rising ground that 
 led to the peak of Mt. Franklin. Directly ahead 
 of the summit of Franklin, and still higher up, ap- 
 pears the double head of Mt. Munroe; and, about 
 a mile beyond Munroe, the cone of Mt. Washington 
 
144 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 rises with a seemingly easy slope, and apparently 
 200 feet higher than its neighboring summits. The 
 passage from Franklin to Munroe I shall never for- 
 get. It is the wildest and the grandest ride, proba- 
 bly, Which can be found any where except upon the 
 Alps. At one spot, the horse-path is made along the 
 edge of a rock which overhangs an abyss that yawns 
 to the very base of the mountain ; and, for miles 
 around, the sides and valley of the immense ravine 
 are filled with pine-trees, whose sombre, monotonous 
 verdure does not much relieve the sublime terror of 
 the scene. And, at one place, tve rode upon the ridge 
 froin which two valleys sloped away, and which com- 
 manded views for miles, to the right and left, among 
 the hills by which we were surrounded. A horse, 
 belonging to one of a party that ascended after us 
 the same day, in going down one of the perilous 
 descents on the edge of a gulf, went over, and struck 
 upon his back on the top of a stunted pine-tree, 
 about twenty feet below. This broke his fall ; and he 
 was drawn up safely, and ridden the rest of the way. 
 The rider had fortunately dismounted, from fear, 
 before the adventure. 
 
 Saving passed the peaks which I have mentioned, 
 we gained the slope of Mt. Washington, and began 
 the ascent of its cone. From the distance, it seemed 
 as though the peak was quite smooth, and that the 
 ascent must be easy. But when we reached the 
 
ELEVEN YEARS OF MINISTRY. 145 
 
 mountain itself, and saw the other peaks below us, 
 we found that the head of Washington was in itself 
 a mountain, and that the journey to the top would be 
 the most toilsome part of the way. The whole sum- 
 mit was covered with green rocks, which lay like chips 
 from some giant ship-yard. However, in about half 
 an hour we succeeded, and stood upon the highest 
 land this side the Mississippi, at half-past eleven. We 
 were three hours and three-quarters in making the 
 whole ascent: the distance is seven or eight miles. 
 We dined on" the summit, and found plenty of clear 
 cold water bubbling up among the barren rocks, which 
 was more refreshing than the spirit which everybody 
 takes along. The day was very clear, and the view 
 was most magnificent. On one side, we could see 
 away off into Maine ; on the west, the Green Moun- 
 tains of Vermont dotted the horizon ; to the north, the 
 land of Canada is visible ; and to the south-east, on 
 a very clear day, the Atlantic, near Portsmouth and 
 Portland, looks like a silver line upon the edge of 
 the sky.* But the grandeur of the prospect consists 
 in the mountain-peaks and ranges, by which for miles 
 on every hand the country is broken. It is as if the 
 ocean, when the storm had lashed its billows into 
 enormous size, had suddenly become hardened, and 
 stood with upreared. granite waves. It was a sight to 
 be dreamed about, and recalled, and mused upon : it 
 cannot be described. We sang " Old Hundred " after 
 10 
 
146 THOMAS STABB KING. 
 
 dinner ; and, having remained an hour on the summit, 
 began the descent. It is about as difficult, and more 
 tiresome, to go down as to go up. I walked more 
 than half the way. When we reached the summit of 
 Mt. Clinton, on the return, it began to rain ; and most 
 of the party were drenched wlien they reached the 
 tavern. I had a great-coat with me, and an extra 
 pair of pants, and kept dry. On Tuesday morning, 
 we started for Franconia Notch, which we reached 
 at three o'clock, p.m. The scenery here is magnifi- 
 cent. Perhaps you remember that "the Old Man 
 of the Mountain " is visible here. On the jutting 
 brow of a crag, 2,000 feet above the road, there is 
 the profile of an old man, with a Roman helmet on 
 his head. The outline is perfect, the head colossal, 
 and the effect, as you may imagine, grand beyond 
 description. There are very many objects of interest 
 at this Notch, which I have not room to describe, 
 but which I hope to revisit, in company with you, 
 before many years. On Thursday morning, we 
 started for home from Franconia ; and arrived Thurs- 
 day night, at half-past eight o'clock. I am homesick 
 for the mountains. But to-morrow I leave for Eock- 
 port, to spend five weeks by the seashore. . . . 
 
 Your sincere friend, Stars. 
 
 Mr. King continued his visits to this region. 
 In 1853, he began to print accounts of his 
 
ELEVEN TEARS OF MINISTRY 147 
 
 explorations, in the " Boston Transcript ; " and 
 having for ten years, in winter as well as sum- 
 mer, viewed its grace and glory, he embodied 
 the results of his experience in a noble volume, 
 entitled "The White Hills, — their Legends, 
 Landscape, and Poetry." This was published 
 in 1849, with this dedication: "To Edwin 
 Percy Whipple this book is inscribed with ad- 
 miration and gratitude." It was received with 
 great favor. Among the notices of it is an 
 interesting and appreciative article, by Rev. 
 Thomas B. Fox, in the " Christian Examiner." 
 He remarks, "These four hundred pages of 
 descriptive discourse about 'the cathedral dis- 
 trict of New Hampshire ' contain the most elab- 
 orate attempt to picture to the mind's eye the 
 grandeur and beauty of natural scenery which 
 has graced our native literature. In compre- 
 hensiveness of outline, and fulness of filling up, 
 in unity of purpose, and abundance and variety 
 of matter, it stands alone as the most finished 
 work of the kind, — a volume of aesthetic teach- 
 ing, thus far without a rival." This production 
 is far more than a description of the White 
 
148 THOMAS STARS KING. 
 
 Hills : its rich descriptions of every variety of 
 landscape apply to all natural scenes, and bring 
 out their inmost meaning. There is much of 
 himself in this volume, of his rare spiritual 
 insight, — much of what his cultured -and rev- 
 erent eye saw in the beauty and the grandeur 
 that God is creating every day. 
 
 While this volume was going through the 
 press, Mr. King was contemplating the great 
 change of removing from Boston to San Fran- 
 cisco. "He had," Dr. Bellows says, "become 
 conscious that the strain on his powers was 
 more than he could bear. His double pro- 
 fession as preacher and lecturer exacted more 
 from his always delicate physique than it could 
 any longer safely supply. His personal popu- 
 larity, and the social attentions he received, 
 drained still more his quick and lavish nature, 
 always willing to do its capable part in the en- 
 tertainment of aU companies."* And, above 
 all, Dr. Bellows says he needed a support by 
 which he could be relieved from the necessity 
 of iacessant lecturing. As this became known, 
 
 * Discourse, May 1, 1864. 
 
ELEVEN TEAMS OF MINISTRY. 149 
 
 several societies endeavored to obtain his ser- 
 vices, the chief of which were Brooklyn, Chi- 
 cago, Cincinnati, and San Francisco. The last 
 society was represented to be tottering. Partly 
 to benefit the cause of the liberal gospel in 
 California, and " partly to get rest from writing, 
 and scattering labor," — his own words, — he 
 was from the first inclined to accept offers made 
 to him by the society in San Francisco. " The 
 White-Mountain book," he writes Sept. 3, 1859, 
 to his confidential friend, Randolph Ryer, "wiU 
 be out for the holidays in good shape. It 
 will be a beauty. ... I have lots of news to 
 tell you, — among other things, that I shall 
 probably move to San Francisco." Drs. Put- 
 nam, Peabody, Bellows, and others, indorsed 
 the call from Cincinnati, "with very urgent 
 and wise appeals," he says ; but he decided at 
 length in favor of California, and he tendered 
 his resignation as the pastor of the HoUis-street 
 Society. 
 
 The society were reluctant to accept an un- 
 conditional resignation ; and at length, instead, 
 persuaded him to consider himself as their pas- 
 
150 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 tor, and take a leave of absence for fifteen 
 months : it being understood, that if, at any 
 time during this period, he should decide to 
 return to Boston, his parishioners would claim 
 his services. These proceedings make a beauti- 
 ful record of faithfulness, alike honorable to the 
 pastor and the society. 
 
 The Hollis-street Church, on Sunday, March 
 25, 1860, was crowded with an eager and at- 
 tentive audience, to listen to Mr. King's fare- 
 well sermon. He invited Rev. C. H. Leonard, 
 the pastor of the Universalist Society in Chel- 
 sea, to be with him on this occasion. " I know 
 not how I can go through with it," Mr. King 
 said to his friend as he was about to enter the 
 desk. "You cannot go through with it; you 
 will be carried through," was the reply. This 
 sermon was printed under the title of " Words 
 at Parting." It is a review of his ministry of 
 eleven years ; and, if in style it bears the mark 
 of haste, it is rich in spiritual things. The out- 
 ward prosperity of the parish occupies the first 
 portion of the discourse. "From a fragment 
 whose very fibres were bruised," the society 
 
ELEVEN YEAM8 OF MINISTBT. 151 
 
 became, a few years after his ministry com- 
 menced, "a strong-limbed body," and its pros- 
 perity continued. After alluding, he said, for 
 encouragement of the society, to its outward 
 condition, he proceeded to dwell on higher and 
 more fitting meditations. He had ever seen in 
 his own inner nature a reflection of the law of 
 spiritual life ; and he observed the inner life 
 of his parish, to discern in it the marks of the 
 ordering and outlook of the Infinite. These 
 beautiful "Words" make a record of the inspi- 
 ration which he drew from the divine that was 
 passing before him in the ordinary, homely 
 facts of every-day affairs. He looked upon 
 religion, not as a thing apart from, but as in- 
 corporated with, life : it was thinking rightly, 
 aspiring naturally, loving piurely ; and only the 
 supreme heights were reached in the beauty and 
 peace of Christian natures. This yfdiS his 
 Christianity. He said that each life was a par- 
 agraph in its lasting evidences ; each pew had 
 supplied a chapter of the perpetual gospel; 
 and its laws had been revealed in individual 
 unworthiness or obedience, in individual degra- 
 
152 THOMAS STARE KING. 
 
 dation or attainment. " This," he said, " is the 
 broad foundation of the Liberal Christianity I 
 have tried to preach, and have more and more 
 deeply believed." And he reasoned back from 
 right living to a concession of the vein of vital 
 truth there is in v^hatever organization it is 
 found. "Nothing but pure truth, brethren," 
 he said, " can produce noble Hfe ;•" and, as 
 every sect produces noble lives, so the air of 
 the Spirit bathes every party in Christendom. 
 " The principle on which I insist," he said, " ac- 
 knowledges and protects every class of believers 
 that bears a separate name." Thus the broad 
 views, the faith and the philosophy, which were 
 early grasped, pervade these " Words at Part- 
 ing." They are imbued with the serene spirit 
 of Christian fellowship. As a farewell utter- 
 ance, they befitted the quiet communings of 
 the "normal" sabbath, the perfection of which 
 is symbolized as the sweet day of Nature, — 
 
 " So cool, So calm, so bright, 
 The bridal of the earth and sky." 
 
 The occasion attracted many who were not 
 members of the society. One of them, in re- 
 
ELEVEN TEASS. OF MINISTRY. 153 
 
 marking on "this noble and manly, and yet 
 tender and modest, review" by Mr. King of his 
 ministry,. said, that a third party might speak 
 of the fact, " that, rapid as has been the growth 
 of his genius as a fervid and brilliant preacher, 
 it has been fully matched by a growth as rapid 
 in his solid attainments as a theologian ; and 
 that his rhetoric, opulent as it is in all those 
 picturesque images and vivid phases which 
 seize upon the fancy, is none the less the 
 guarded expression of a large, clear, full, and 
 well-disciplined mind. They could say, that, 
 excellent as were his powers of acquisition, of 
 thought, and of speech, there was something 
 still more excellent in the genial, loving, and 
 cheerful spirit from which his powers derived 
 their finest life, drew their richest aspiration, 
 and received their noblest impulse. They could 
 point to a long service as a Christian minister, 
 in which the pulpit had never been controlled 
 by the pews, and in which the pews could never 
 complain that any opinions, however unpala- 
 table, had ever been tainted by acrid passions 
 unbecoming a Christian minister to feel. They 
 
154 THOMAS STABS KING. 
 
 could bear their testimony, that he had always 
 been bold and independent, and at the same 
 time been free from the wilfulness and malig- 
 nity into which boldness and independence are 
 sometimes stung by opposition. They could 
 appeal to thousands in proof of the assertion, 
 that though in charge of a large parish, and 
 with a lecture-parish which extended from Ban- 
 gor to St. Louis, he stUl seemed to have time 
 for every good and noble work, to be open to 
 every demand of misfortune, tender to every 
 pretension to weakness, responsive to every call 
 of sympathy, and true to every obligation of 
 friendship ; and they will all indulge the hope, 
 that California, cordial as must be the welcome 
 she extends to him, will still not be able to 
 keep him long from Massachusetts." 
 
A MONTH OF INTERVAL. 
 
 T has been seen from public recogni- 
 tions, that, from the day of the ordi- 
 nation of Thomas Starr King at 
 Charlestown, there was no pause in the growth 
 of his power and reputation. He was not 
 considered as profoundly learned ; he was not 
 regarded as a remarkable orator ; he was not a 
 great writer ; nor can his unrivalled popularity 
 be ascribed to his fascinating social or intel- 
 lectual gifts. "It was the hidden, interior man 
 of the heart, the invisible character behind all 
 the rich possessions, intellectual and social, of 
 this gifted man, that gave him his real power 
 and sMll to control the wills, and to move the 
 hearts, and to win the unbounded confidence 
 
 [155] 
 
156 THOMAS STAJRE KING. 
 
 and affection, of his felloWfbeings."* He was 
 one of the magnetic men, — a modem and 
 Christian Alcibiades. None knew him but to 
 love him. And to-day an Agassiz talks as 
 lovingly of him as do the little circle of his first 
 and constant and humble friends who caressed 
 his bright boyhood, f 
 
 I have made a selection from the public 
 acknowledgments of Mr. King's work, because 
 eulogistic notices by the press, when they are 
 just, add vastly to personal power ; and it was 
 the reports of his efforts, as far as the call was 
 of man, that really severed his relations with 
 the East, and raised him to the loftier stage 
 of the West. | He preached his last sermon in 
 the Hollis-street Church on the 25th of March, 
 1860 ; and his first sermon in San Francisco on 
 the 29th of April. In this interval, when he 
 was tried by the fire of prosperity, there are 
 testimonials rarely seen in the career of a man 
 of thirty-five, who filled no public office, who 
 had only fought manfully the battle of hfe, 
 
 * Dr. Bellows. 
 
 t Eev. T. B. Fox in the " Christian Examiner." t H>. 
 
A MONTH OF INTERVAL. 157 
 
 and who had aimed to do his best in meetins; 
 the duties of the hour. 
 
 The large-hearted society of Hollis-street 
 Church, besides presenting him with a hand- 
 some sum of money, gave him a Farewell 
 Festival at Nassau Hall, which was tastefully 
 decorated with flowers for the occasion. There 
 was a profusion of them where the pastor and 
 his wife stood to receive their friends. It was 
 the fullest social' gathering there had been of 
 the society, and many presented beautiful bou- 
 quets. There was an entertainment ; but no 
 speeches were made. I saw him last the day 
 before he left Boston, when he spoke in grateful 
 terms of the bearing towards him of his society, 
 and of the compliment he had received from 
 New York. 
 
 This was an invitation to attend, as the prin- 
 cipal guest, a breakfast, which the laymen of 
 the several Unitarian chiurches in New York 
 and vicinity proposed to give to their clergymen 
 and their wives. Among the Unitarian min- 
 isters of Boston who were invited were Rev. 
 Drs. Dewey and Hedge, who, in their replies 
 
158 THOMAS STAMR KING. 
 
 to invitations, dwelt on the character of Mr. 
 King. Dr. Dewey wrote, "Among the most 
 honored guests at your social breakfast, you 
 have one who is leaving us for a distant shore. 
 I wish I could speak of him as I should if he 
 were not present with you, and could express 
 the feeling which I entertain, on every account 
 and in every way, of affectionate admiration for 
 him. I know of nothing in Boston that I could 
 more reluctantly lose from it. But I trust his 
 way will be prosperous in his going and retiu:n- 
 ing; and, if our California brothers shall receive 
 him half as gladly as we shall welcome him 
 back, I am sure that they and he and we shaU 
 be satisfied."* Dr. Hedge wrote, "King is 
 with you for a parting word, and your fraternal 
 benediction on his way. Happy soul ! himself 
 a benediction wherever he goes, benignly dis- 
 pensing the graces of his life wherever he car- 
 ries the wisdom of his word ; a living evangel 
 of kind aiFections ; better than all prophecy and 
 all knowledge. Fain would I be with you, 
 were it only to bask yet a little in that sunny 
 * Lettez, dated Boston, March 30, 1860. 
 
A MONTH OF INTERVAL. 159 
 
 presence, as the voyager on the first night out 
 climbs up the rigging to catch yet one more 
 glimpse of the parting day-star, already lost to 
 the deck. Heaven knows how much of the 
 sunshine of my life that Starr takes with him 
 on his westering course ! A more genial nature 
 I have not known. He seems to me a cross 
 between the Yankee and the Grreek, uniting so 
 much of Hellenic cheer with genuine American 
 tact. Our Jonathan — Lycidas, so I call him 
 — who can fill the void he leaves ? May that 
 wondrous land of his destination receive gladly, 
 and with honor meet, ' the angel of the Church ' 
 whom Boston sends to San Francisco, — hence- 
 forth 'to our moist vows denied.' May the 
 dwellers on the far Pacific shore know how to 
 cherish the goodly gift which we of the Atlantic 
 scarce know how to spare ! " * 
 
 The "Unitarian-reception Breakfast," as it 
 was called, was given at the Fifth-avenue Ho- 
 tel, on Wednesday, the 11th of April. Among 
 the three hundred at the tables were many 
 Unitarian clergymen and prominent members 
 
 * Letter, dated Boston, April 3, 1860. 
 
160 THOMAS STARS KING. 
 
 of the Boston and New-York churches. The 
 bouquet of choice flowers before the plate of 
 each lady, and the music of the Dodworth 
 Band,- contributed to make the re-union tasteful 
 and brilliant. William CuUen Bryant presided; 
 and near him were seated Mr. King, and Drs. 
 Bellows, Osgood, and Farley, with a brilliant 
 array of Unitarian clergymen. Dr. Chapin 
 was invited; but he replied, that an engage- 
 ment out of the city compelled him to be absent 
 from an occasion with which his heart so deeply 
 sympathized, and expressed the hope that it 
 would be one of true Christian utterance and 
 
 joy. 
 
 The chairman of the Committee of Arrange- 
 ments (A. C. Richards, Esq.) appropriately 
 welcomed the company, and introduced the 
 president, who stated the object of the festival 
 in a brief but graceful strain of remark. It 
 was to take leave of his eloquent friend, who 
 was going to where the fields were white to the 
 harvest, and who brought a pair of stout reap- 
 er's arms with him. He hoped their brother 
 and his family would have favoring gales to the 
 
A MONTH OF INTERVAL. 161 
 
 Italy of our land beyond the mountains which 
 were our Switzerland ; and he closed with this 
 sentiment : " This social gathering of our laity 
 and clergy, — pleasant in itself, and pleasant 
 as a promise of frequent and genial and blessed 
 fellowship in coming years for our chtirches." 
 Rev. Dr. Osgood responded to this sentiment, 
 and made the main speech of the festival. He 
 was interesting and poetic. He gratefiilly and 
 gracefully recognized the generosity of the laity 
 in preparing a scene so charming, that, if Alad- 
 din's lamp were a Christian device, it might 
 well be believed it had been used to create it. 
 " This plenty and hospitality," he said, " is 
 worthy of our hospitable hosts. This hall is a 
 fair symbol of our laity, in their whole treat- 
 ment of their ministers. Here is bread enough 
 and to spare; and these substantial viands show 
 fitly the honorable fact, that our people do not 
 mean, either here or elsewhere, to keep their 
 clergy in a famishing or half-famishing con- 
 dition. These lovely flowers well typify the 
 friendly and devout sentiment that cheers our 
 churches with its fragrance ; and this sweet 
 11 
 
162 THOMAS STARS KING. 
 
 music is the voice of the higher harmony that 
 is binding our people together, and asking to 
 rebuke the harsh individualism, and celestialize 
 church-life into the fellowship of the Spirit." 
 The best of all, he said, were the substantial 
 men and women who were here seen together. 
 He dwelt on this feature, then on the poet who 
 presided, and but briefly on the guest, who, he 
 said, " has been nurtured by our best thought, 
 and who has found his best teachers in Walker's 
 sententious wisdom and Dewey's devout elo- 
 quence." He closed in the following terms : 
 " I commend our guest to his new work, and 
 offer, in your name, our God-speed to him and 
 to his family. We doubt not that the Golden 
 Gate, that opens to admit this voyager, will 
 receive a better treasure than they give, — a 
 treasure of spiritual wisdom, as well as beau- 
 tiful taste and genial fellowship. Such mer- 
 chandise is ' better than the merchandise of 
 silver; and the gain thereof, than fine gold.' 
 I give this sentiment : Our principal guest, 
 Thomas Starr King : God's blessing upon him, 
 his family, and his voyage ! We give him the 
 
A MONTH OF INTERVAL. 163 
 
 hand and the heart of our fellowship to bear 
 with him to our brethren and our church in 
 California." 
 
 Mx. King, in reply,* spoke naturally of his 
 
 * This speech was severely criticised by a portion of the 
 TJniversalist press, and treated as though it were unworthy 
 the character of Mr. King. Hence, though I do not aim to pre- 
 sent liis denominational or political life, yet deem it due to 
 truth to copy here what report there is of this effort, with the 
 remarks, 1. That on his returns from visits to N'ew York, when 
 he was teaching school, he was accustomed to express admira- 
 tion of Dr. Dewey's discourses; and, 2. He was sensitive as to 
 the report of his speech, the imperfect character of which, in his 
 private letters, he deeply regretted. 
 
 "Mr Pkesident, Ladies, and Gestlemen, — One of the 
 most distinguished essayists of New England once said, that, if 
 any one could condense into a blow-pipe all the feelings which he 
 felt in addressing a large company, it would melt a planet. I feel, 
 that, could I condense but one-hundredth part of the feelings I 
 now experience, it would melt my heart. I have often been 
 termed a ' distinguished son of New England,' and have not always 
 rectified the mistake ; for in New England it does not bestow any 
 particular credit on a man to be called a New-Yorker. But now, 
 when about to leave for California, I make full confession. I am 
 a son of New York I did not, however, remain here long 
 enough to become deeply corrupted ; for I took my hegira, as I 
 am informed (for I have no definite recollection of the fact), when 
 five weeks old. But I was not only born in New York, but I 
 may say that I had my second birth also here : for it was to this 
 city I came, on visits to my friends, when a mere youth, and at 
 the period when the heart is unusually open to religious impres- 
 sions; and some of my earliest and deepest convictions of the 
 truth of Christianity were gained at that time. 
 
164 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 connection with New York ; and what he said 
 was in a strain of gratitude and of a generosity 
 of acknowledgment that were characteristic of 
 him. There is no stenographic report of this 
 
 " I lemember when I was quite a young man, twenty years 
 ago, going in and hearing a sermon in the Church of the Messiah; 
 and no church in the world, not even St. Peter's, could make me 
 believe that I was so much in the house of God, as when there 
 listening to the beautiful sermon of Dr. Dewey, which, like dis- 
 tant thunder on the horizon, convinced me that I heard the voice 
 of God. It was said, that, if Jove should come on earth to speak 
 to men, he would speak in Homer's Greek; and so it seemed, 
 if the Infinite himself came to speak to the children of men, he 
 would speak in some such tones as those of Dr. Dewey. I stand 
 to-day to speak of him and of New York, and to show that the 
 reverence which I then felt for him has been somewhat subdued 
 since by experiencing his friendship in Boston. My friend of the 
 Church of the Divine Unity would no doubt remember the first 
 sermon I preached in his church. I believe it was a very rainy 
 night, and there were but forty-five persons present. To-day I 
 have two places to speak of, — one is Boston ; and the other the 
 Golden Gate beyond the Switzerland of our country, as the Presi- 
 dent so well expressed it. I will only say of Boston, that, next 
 to New York and San Francisco, Boston is the best place to live 
 in. If we read the early history of the Church in the Acts of the 
 Apostles, we shall see that the great cities on the sea-shore were 
 the vital points of diffusion. Not in inland Jesusalem, but in 
 Antioch, in Corinth, in Eome, the great work was done. In the 
 inland cities, St. Paul only remained weeks, while in seaports his 
 stay was for years. There is a glory in being able to shape even 
 a single heart according to the religion of Jesus Christ: what, 
 then, must it be to have a whole State in which to make a noble 
 tj-pe of Christianity ! I feel that I shall go to my new field weak 
 
A MONTH OF INTERVAL. 165 
 
 extempore speech, and no sketch whatever of 
 the closing portion of it. At the end of what 
 account there is, it is related that he "pro- 
 ceeded to argue eloquently in behalf of the 
 
 enough; and, before the President's poetry could be fulfilled, I 
 know that my arms will need some gymnastic training. I know 
 that even Aladdin's lamp could not display the scene which 
 would be enacted, as the words of God go afar into the field of a 
 new and vast empire of freemen. I think I ought to have the 
 privilege of taking out some of the sermons of my brethren to 
 that distant post of labor. I feel that I should be commissioned 
 to speak for New York there. I would wish some sermons from 
 Dr. Osgood, Dr. Farley, Brother Frothingham. or Dr. Bellows, so 
 that I might say to my new fiock, ' These men are preaching to 
 you.' 1 jronld also like to have some of Brother Longfellow's 
 inspiration, and then I might succeed. As to my prospects in 
 California, a vast field is before me. I trust that I may, beyond 
 the land where — 
 
 ' BoUs the Oregon, and hears no sound 
 Save its own dashings,' 
 
 preach the Christian Thanatopsis, 'Whereas in Adam all die, 
 so m Christ shall all be made alive.' But in regard to the gen- 
 eral cause, however highly we may think of the Unitarian doc- 
 trine, and however superior we may feel our simple faith to be, 
 we are to remember that the grandeur of the Christian religion is 
 shown in its calling into existence so many great and diverse 
 tjTies of excellence. There are diversities of operation, but one 
 spirit, — not Catholic alone, or Protestant alone : there were 
 Luther and Calvin and Wesley and Channing. It was as in 
 literature. Once it was said there was no standard but the classic ; 
 but what shall we make now of Dante and Shakspeare ? So 
 Greek art was once pronounced to be tlie only true art ; but what 
 
166 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 Liberal Christianity represented by the Unita- 
 rian Church. After a beautiful tribute to Dr. 
 Bellows, and others present, the reverend gen- 
 tleman bade farewell to his friends, and con- 
 eluded by offering this sentiment : ' The Liberal 
 Christians of New York and its neighborhood, 
 — may they support in the future, as now, the 
 cause they advocate, and vindicate their claim 
 to an honorable place ia the Broad Church by 
 the vigor of their faith and the riches of their 
 Christian character !'" 
 
 Dr. Bellows, in following Mr. King, began 
 by saying, " The speech of our friend and guest 
 has made me feel as if I were going to Cali- 
 fornia too : and, indeed, I could almost be will- 
 shall we make of the Gothic cathedral ? All the world cannot 
 be made after one religious type. But let each be faithful to 
 its own calling, and grow after its own kind. But there is one 
 method of growth to Unitarianism, perhaps, that has not been 
 thought of. An Irishman once called on me for pecuniary aid. 
 I questioned him, and expressed surprise that he did not go for 
 assistance to his priest. The Irishman said he was not a Catholic, 
 but was born a Presbyterian, and his wife was an Episcopalian j 
 but, when they came to this country, they compromised their dif- 
 ferences of creed, and became Unitarians. I think, that, if this 
 would always be the result, I could truly pray that all Presby- 
 terians and Episcopalians might be brought to live together in 
 uaity!" 
 
A MONTH OF INTEBVAL. 167 
 
 ing to go in his company ; for great as his loss 
 may be to us here at the East in a denomina- 
 tional way, and as a brilliant and popular expo- 
 nent of our Liberal Christianity, it seems just 
 now to be still greater ia a private way and as 
 a personal friend. His genial and aifectionate 
 nature has made him so necessary to us, that 
 we know not how to part with him. But per- 
 haps all the more for this reason is he better 
 fitted to go. His attaching private qualities 
 wiU double his public usefulness. If we could 
 readily spare him, he would not be so eagerly 
 coveted; and, if he had not made it a great 
 sacrifice for us to give him up, he would not be 
 so precious where he is going. But really he 
 is only following up his legitimate business in 
 going to California. A circulating medium, 
 widely diffused and everywhere current, ring- 
 ing always true, known for genuine at every 
 counter, and honored, no doubt, by every one 
 of these bankers and brokers and presidents 
 and directors I see about me, he has done as 
 much as any one of our brethren to bring the 
 widely scattered states, cities, villages, and ham- 
 
168 THOMAS BTAJtS KING. 
 
 lets of our Atlantic world into relations of intel- 
 lectual and moral commerce with each other ; 
 and now he simply goes to extend these rela- 
 tions between the Atlantic and Pacific commu- 
 nities. "What has he been about, these ten 
 years past, but knitting together, with his 
 genial and subtile powers, the intellectual and 
 moral heart-strings of, may I not say, millions 
 of hearers, to whom he has either preached 
 Liberal Christianity, or lectured it without the 
 name, or even the intent? For with those to 
 whom religion is the name for the highest view 
 of life, considered In its totality, there can be 
 no distinction between lecturing and preaching. 
 If the people do not object to the medicine, but 
 only to the label, it is a great satisfaction that 
 its efficacy does not depend upon its name. 
 And now our brother is going, drawing after 
 him all these tender affections, all this sympa- 
 thetic body of "countrymen, friends, and lov- 
 ers,' — going a representative of the liberal 
 thought and enlarged moral and religious senti- 
 ment of the great public whose ear and con- 
 fidence he has so richly •enjoyed and deserved. 
 
A MONTH OF INTERVAL. 169 
 
 — to the remotest part of our country, — the 
 opposite side of our land, — to fasten the cord 
 he has woven to the hearts of California broth- 
 ers, and presently to establish a mighty and 
 cordial bond between the liberal thinkers of 
 the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts. It is a 
 proper, a legitimate business for him. He is 
 made for it ; and the work is both worthy, and 
 likely to be glorious." 
 
 An interesting letter was read from Rev. R. 
 P. Cutler, who for five years preached to the 
 Unitarian Society of San Francisco. "I will 
 predict for Mr. King," he wrote, " a large mea^ 
 sure of success in his ministry there, an extended 
 popularity, wider means of Christian usefulness, 
 and a grander harvest from his lone and faithful 
 toil, than he has ever yet enjoyed. He goes to 
 a new seat of empire, — to the spot where that 
 star which has so long wandered westward 
 stands fixed and radiant in the heavens. He 
 goes to a State which has inexhaustible resources 
 in her soil, and a great fiiture of both power and 
 fame. He goes to a city of a marvellously 
 rapid growth, and whose inhabitants are match- 
 
170 THOMAS STABR KINO. 
 
 less in energy and enterprise. He goes to a 
 climate which is full of all health, inspiration, 
 and vitality. He goes to a community remark- 
 ably receptive of liberal ideas in religion ; and 
 he goes to a people and a society whose arms, 
 whose hearts and homes, are generously open 
 to receive him." 
 
 The report of this festival occupies fourteen 
 columns of the " New- York Christian Inquirer," 
 which, besides the speeches and letters already 
 named, contains sketches of the remarks made 
 by Eev. Dr. Farley, Eev. Samuel Longfellow, 
 and Eev. O. B. Frothingham. The "Jnquirer " 
 says it was truly a tasteful and splendid re- 
 union, which seemed to give entire satisfaction 
 to the company. 
 
 Abstracts of speeches are hardly objects of 
 legitimate criticism, as opinions expressed in 
 them may be essentially modified by words left 
 out; and criticism on Mr. King's speech on 
 this occasion would seem to be precluded, from 
 the circumstance that he pronounced the report 
 of it contained in the " Inquirer " to be inaccu- 
 'rate. He did not, however, make one of his 
 
A MONTH OF INTERVAL. 171 
 
 happiest efforts. His reference to Dr. Dewey 
 was more complimentary than it was just to 
 himself. The sentiment which he offered, em- 
 hodyiag the main thought of his speech, is in 
 harmony with the whole course of his life. 
 
 Cheered by substantial tokens of affection, 
 he, with his family, embarked in the " Northern 
 Light " for San Francisco. He had a pleasant 
 voyage. " The last two days of the passage," 
 he writes, " were rough ; but I was not sick a 
 minute. I wrote a sermon during the roughest 
 swell, sitting in my state-room. I commenced 
 at eleven in the morning, and finished at nine at 
 night." He also kept a journal and wrote let- 
 ters during the passage. He arrived at three 
 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, April 28, at 
 San Francisco. "The parish committee," he 
 says, " were in waiting, and told me that they 
 had given notice that there would be no service 
 on Sunday, supposing I would be exhausted. 
 But I told them I was ready ; and they gave a 
 new notice in one Sunday-morning paper." 
 
 As Mr. King was on his way to California, 
 the beautiful article on. "The White HUls," in 
 
172 THOMAS STABR KING. 
 
 the "Christian Examiner," written by his friend 
 Eev. T. B. Fox, was passing through the press. 
 "When," is its closing paragraph, "this com- 
 mendation of 'The White Hills' reaches our 
 readers, its author may be entering through the 
 Golden Gate, — the harbor of San Francisco. 
 Many of those readers who ' have him in their 
 hearts ' for his fervid and logical discourses on 
 the highest themes, or for the joyous wit and 
 wisdom of his spontaneous talk, will join in the 
 hope we cannot forbear expressing here, that 
 the new scene of his labors may bid him wel- 
 come, enrobed in the richest and softest hues 
 of a Pacific sunset ; an omen to his native and 
 educated instinct for beauty of a twice-blessed 
 Christian ministry, — none the less Christian 
 because tliere will mingle with its speech and 
 work the influence of an enthusiastic passion 
 for the natural world, as fuU of manifestations 
 of the law, the wisdom, and the love of its 
 Creator." 
 
FOUR YEAES IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
 pOMAS STAER KING entered upon 
 his labors in California in an unpre- 
 tending way. "I shall go to you," 
 he wrote to the Unitarian Parish of San Fran- 
 cisco, " in the hope of using all the powers that 
 may be continued to me for your permanent 
 strength as a Liberal-Christian parish. My 
 great ambition in life is to serve the cause of 
 Christianity as represented by the noblest souls 
 of all the Liberal-Christian parties. I am not 
 conscious of any gifts, either of thought or 
 speech, that can make my presence with you so 
 desirable as you seem to think ; but if I can be 
 of service by co-operating with you in laying 
 deeper the foundations and lifting higher the 
 
 [178 J 
 
174 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 walls of our faith in your city, whose civiliza^ 
 tion is weaving out of the most various and in 
 many respects the best threads of the American 
 character, I shall have reason always to bless 
 Providence for a rich privilege."* When he 
 'thus defined the ruling passion of his life, he 
 indulged the hope that "he might be relieved 
 from the detestable vagrancy imposed by his 
 present necessity of lecturing, "f I see no 
 reason to doubt the sincerity of these words 
 because Mr. King continued to lecture, any 
 more than there is to doubt the sincerity of 
 statesmen, who in their letters sigh for the 
 repose of private life, and yet continue to fill 
 post after post of honor. With this ambition 
 and hope, he contemplated what proved to be 
 his crowning service, and for which his life had 
 been a preparation. It would require a volume 
 to do justice to the work by which he became 
 identified with the social, political, and theologi- 
 
 * Letter to Chairman of Trustees, Boston, Jan. 3, 1860, in 
 the valuable address of Robert B. Swain, delivered March 15, 
 1864. 
 
 t Letter to Dr. Bellows, Dec. 2, 1859. 
 
FOUR TEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 175 
 
 cal life of California. I propose only to glance 
 at his fields of labor, and pass to the closing 
 scene. 
 
 Mr. King delivered his first discourse in 
 San Francisco on the 29th of April, 1860. His 
 countenance had an expression of surprise as he 
 edged his way towards the pulpit along the 
 aisle packed with the earnest, hardy, stalwart 
 people who completely filled the church; and 
 doubtless, as the audience saw his slender frame 
 and youthful appearance, the feeling was recip- 
 rocated, and hundreds involuntarily exclaimed, 
 "Is this Starr King?" He preached from the 
 text, "And they shall come from the east and 
 the west, and from the north and from the 
 south, and shaU. sit down in the kingdom of 
 God." His sermon more .than met the ex- 
 pectations of the parish, and, by the warm 
 eulogies of the secular press, created a sensa- 
 tion through the city. From Sunday to Sun- 
 day, from month to month, the interest which 
 he excited continued. His subsequent dis- 
 courses rather added to than took from this 
 first impression. His feelings had been power- 
 
176 THOMAS STARE KING. 
 
 fully stirred by the generous proofs of affection 
 for him in the East, which, so far from nursing 
 conceit, stimulated him to effort : the surpass- 
 ing natural beauty and wonders of this region, 
 as he coursed the Pacific Sea or surveyed the 
 grand mountain-land, ministered to his religious 
 genius ; and, as he trod this cosmopolitan field 
 in the free play of his nature, qualities came 
 out which were unknown to his old friends, and 
 perhaps were unknown to himself. He wove 
 into his pulpit efforts the new impressions bom 
 of the fresh experience of the common life about 
 him ; and it is fair to presume that his utter- 
 ances now attained their greatest excellence, or 
 at least their most effective spiritual power. 
 The noble centralisms of his theology — the 
 paternity of God and the brotherhood of man * 
 
 * Peter Cooper, Esq., who was prominent in the Unitarian 
 Festival, says in a letter to Dr. Bellows, printed in the " New- 
 York Christian Inquirer," and dated April 2, 1864, "It was u 
 firm and an all-inspiring faith in the fatherhood of God and in the 
 brotherhood of man that made Starr King willing to labor and 
 suffer reproach: because he beh'eved that God will have all men 
 to be saved, and cbme to the knowledge of the truth; feeling 
 assured that none can resist the good pleasure of an Almighty 
 Will." 
 
FOUR TEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 177 
 
 — were well adapted to this field. A portion 
 of his parish, some of whom had sat under 
 his preaching at Charlestown, were in full 
 sympathy with these views. His labors were 
 rewarded with great success. So his profes- 
 sional life continued to the end. 
 
 Circumstances dissipated whatever hopes he 
 might have indulged of being free from the lec- 
 ture-room : and indeed he had accepted, before 
 leaving Boston, a flattering invitation to deliver, 
 before the Mercantile-Library Association, a 
 course of four lectures, consisting of those he 
 had delivered at the East. He thus refers in a 
 letter to the first one : " I have written a first- 
 rate new lecture for the opening. Subject, 
 ' Substance and Show.' It closes with a mag- 
 nificent picture of San Francisco, reclining in a 
 sand-hill, and washing its feet of dust and fleas 
 in the great basin which empties into the Pacific. 
 A most eloquent passage." The others were 
 equally original. They were delivered in the 
 First Congregational Church, which was crowd- 
 ed to its utmost capacity with people to hear 
 them. Each one was pronounced a gem in its 
 12 
 
178 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 way. The receipts were unprecedented ; and, 
 though the lecturer was liberally compensated, a 
 handsome sum was added to the treasury of the 
 institution. He was urged to deliver a second 
 course ; but duty to his society compelled him 
 to decline. He lectured, however, in many 
 places in the State and in Oregon. He wrote 
 new lectures. One of them, on "Books and 
 Reading," on its first dehvery, struck great 
 audiences like a series of electric shocks, and 
 took the best of any. He thus relates per- 
 sonal incidents connected with the delivery of 
 this lecture : " In my lecture on ' Books and 
 Heading,' I made the Germans mad by alluding 
 to a German student as a man ' whose blood 
 was a decoction of tobacco-smoke and beer.' 
 They pitched into me right and left. So I put 
 a salve on their wounded feelings, ia my lecture, 
 in the Methodist Chapel, upon the fresh and 
 refreshing topic of ' Substance and Show.' I 
 told them that the last thing in my thought 
 was to insult Germans as a class. Not only 
 were German students great blessings to Cali- 
 fornia, but I was a German myself! My 
 
FOUR YEAJRS IN CALIFORNIA. 179 
 
 grandfather came straight from Saxony, full of 
 tobacco-smoke and beer, and brought my name 
 with him, — Thomas Starr. And then I told 
 them that 'Starr,' in my native tongue, means 
 " stiff, stubborn, obstinate, and wrong-headed ; ' 
 'and,' I continued, 'so long as I bear the name, 
 I mean to be true to it, and remain " stiff and 
 obstinate" in my gratitude and reverence for 
 the scholars and the service of my fatherland. 
 And now,' said I, 'if there are any fellow-Ger- 
 mans here, let us mutually and cordially shake 
 hands.' I am all right now with the Saxon 
 brethren, and they feel very happy." 
 
 The lectures Mr. King wrote in California 
 were pronounced to be altogether of a different 
 order from the series that had been' delivered in 
 the East. " He availed himself of that injunc- 
 tion of rhetoricians, not to be too evenly excel- 
 lent in your style. He polished his sentences 
 less ; he waited no longer on fine fancies ; he 
 argued more ; he dropped down to good plain 
 talk for minutes together in his addresses ; 
 and then, when his hearers were rested, he 
 blazed out with passages that swept away all 
 
180 THOMAS STABS KINO. 
 
 thoughts but of the one topic that possessed 
 him."* 
 
 The calls on him for lectures were incessant. 
 The pioneers recognized, in this brilliant intel- 
 lect, a mine, the products of which had a glitter 
 above their fields of gold ; and they were crazy 
 to work it. Now and then, a flood would de- 
 prive them of the pleasure ; but scarcely any 
 thing else. " I am hard at work, as usual," he 
 wrote, " but not in lecturing. There is a great 
 flood in the interior. California is a lake. 
 Bats, squirrels, locusts, lecturers, and other 
 pests, are drowned out. I am a home-bird, 
 and enjoy it hugely." And he labored in this 
 field to the close of his life. 
 
 He was invited to labor in the wider field 
 of the social, literary, and philanthropic organi- 
 zations, which, irrespective of party or sect or 
 position, bring the leading spirits of communi- 
 ties together on the plane of a common human- 
 ity. It speaks volumes for that new-formed 
 community, that these associations were in full 
 play in it. Mr. King complied with requests to 
 
 * " San Francisco Dailv Bulletin." 
 
FOUR TEAMS IN CALIFORNIA. 181 
 
 Bpeak in behalf of the Seamen's-friend Society, 
 the Episcopal Mission Sunday School, the Dash- 
 away Temperance Association, the Protestant 
 Orphan Asylum, the Ladies' Protection and 
 Relief Society, the Boys' Reform School, the 
 Agricultural Society, the Masonic Relief Fund, 
 the Ancient Order of Masons, and at a High- 
 school Dedication. It is amusing to read his 
 references to these occasions. Whenever there 
 was a contribution, he thought more of the sum 
 he got than of the word he uttered. "I am 
 wanted," he writes in June, 1860, "for several 
 societies ia San Francisco. In fact, .1 am quite 
 in demand, and am very near being ' somebody ' 
 out here. The church is stiU. very full. Last 
 evening I preached in behalf of the Seamen's- 
 friend Society, and asked for a collection in aid 
 of its treasury. We took four hundred dollars. 
 Wasn't that good?" His utterances were ever 
 acceptable. He had the faculty of entering with 
 heart and discretion into a good cause. He 
 carried his geniality of manner in private life 
 into the forum. "There was argument in his 
 very voice. It thrilled and throbbed through an 
 
182 TSOMAS STABR KING. 
 
 audience like an organ, carrying conviction 
 captive before its wonderfiil melody. . . . The 
 audience felt that he was one of them : his eye 
 spoke eloquently of sympathy vnth them, and 
 his tongue confirmed it. Even though you sat 
 in a far corner of the room, you felt at once 
 that he was your friend. The geniality of 
 manner that characterized him in private life he 
 carried upon the platform and into the pulpit." * 
 His broad. Christian eclecticism, his imaffected 
 catholicity, adapted him in a peculiar manner 
 for such labors. His love was the one touch 
 of nature that made the whole world akin. 
 Thus, by the simple wand of unselfish service, 
 he became a man of the people, — a king ruling 
 over their hearts; and, to the close of his 
 career, he remained a general favorite. 
 
 Much account is made in the San Francisco 
 journals of the social influence Mr. King ex- 
 erted. His new home was a house delight- 
 fully situated. " "We are comfortably settled," 
 he writes June 29, 1860, "in our little house; 
 which is a gem in its way, with a superb land- 
 
 * "The Golden Era." 
 
FOUR TEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 183 
 
 scape from the windows. I should be happy 
 if we could have a call, now and then, from 
 some of the dear friends." To another he 
 writes, "A gem of a house, at the low rate of 
 seven ty-'five dollars a — quarter? No, you fool ! 
 a month ! But there's a grand mountain land- 
 scape from the parlor windows. That makes 
 the rent cheap." One of the journals remarks, 
 "His Friday-evening receptions will long be re- 
 membered by all who ever had the privilege of 
 attending one. Hospitality was his delight : its 
 exercise rendered him supremely happy. On 
 these occasions he was radiant." The mirthful 
 vein, in early life full and rich, kept on in an 
 abundant flow ; and, at times, he was as boyish 
 when he was "the natural bishop of California," 
 as when he was chief clerk of the Navy Yard. 
 One of the tributes reads, "He was generous 
 to a fault ; giving more in private charities in 
 one month than many men who are called lib- 
 eral, who have twice his means, give in a year." 
 In this way his social life went on to the last. 
 
 There was yet another labor which he de- 
 lighted in, — that of keeping up correspondence 
 
184 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 with his fiiends. His letters are voluminous ; 
 and a series, on the wonderful scenery of the 
 Pacific, was printed in the " Boston Tran- 
 script." He -had a real character ; and hence 
 life's chansres and conventionalities altered noth- 
 ing in him that was essential. The incense that 
 triumphs bring did not weaken old attachments. 
 His heart was untravelled. Its fibres stretched 
 away to the East, and clung lovingly to early 
 fastenings ; and his letters abound in evidences 
 of his love for friends he left behind. Those 
 addressed to Dr. Ballou strikingly show traits 
 of character. This benignant spirit seemed to 
 be ever near him, " full-charactered with lasting 
 memory." The earliest letter which I have 
 from California is the following one from the 
 Yo-Semite region : — 
 
 To-Semite Falls and Notch, July 17, 1860. 
 My deak Doctob, — This is Tuesday evening; 
 and I am writing to you by camp-fire light in the great 
 To-Semite Notch, where the grandeur of the Sierras 
 seems to concentrate and knot itself, as it were. We 
 arrived here on Sunday afternoon ; and ever since 
 I have been "on the go" among the marvels and 
 splendors of the wondrous pass. And all the time 
 
FOUE YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 185 
 
 I have been thinking of you, — of how greatly you 
 would enjoy the scenery, and of the immensely 
 greater pleasure it would give me to travel with you 
 on foot and by horse. Perhaps, however, if you 
 were here, we should het ; and then, as you are so 
 much more accomplished in faro and thimble-rigging 
 and cribbage, and such clerical graces, no doubt 
 another little paper would have to be printed, very 
 costly to me, running, "Die, quo pignore certes?" 
 or something like that. 
 
 Ah, doctor ! what is there not to see in this val- 
 ley, in the line of majestic rock and cataract wild- 
 ness ? I have seen the genius loci to-day, sitting on 
 an obelisk of granite (springing clean a thousand 
 feet above the snow-line, so smooth that snow could 
 not cling to his ashy-colored poll), and, with his ^n- 
 ger on his nose, looking this query at me : " Ah, my 
 slim chap ! so you've thought the White Mountains 
 were some, have you ? Where's your Notch now ? 
 Can you call to mind those warts on Coos County, 
 Jeflferson, and Adams, that you have written so much 
 nonsense about ? Don't you wish you could make a 
 bonfire of those handsome-typed books, in which you 
 have cracked up baby-mountains as though they are 
 full grown ? " How cute and funny he looked ! and 
 how cheap I felt ! But, then, there isn't room in 
 Coos County for the Sierras ; and the White Moun- 
 tains are as big a dose of sublimity aa the district can 
 
186 THOMAS STABB KING. 
 
 stand. Alas ! I didn't think of this answer till the 
 spirit had melted off from his seat on the south 
 dome of the valley here, — a rock 4,967 feet sheer 
 over the plain. No ; I forget : it was on the obelisk, 
 fifteen hundred feet higher than this, that he so im- 
 pudently leered at New Hampshire and its mountain- 
 annalist. 
 
 Tou can have no conception of the variety and 
 majesty of the rock-walls, cones, turrets, and domes 
 of this valley. I supposed that grotesqueness would 
 be the prominent characteristic of the cliffs and pil- 
 lars. But the forms are very noble. Grotesqueness, 
 or mere Egyptian mass and heaviness, is the excep- 
 tion, not the rule. "We have persons in our party 
 who have scoured Switzerland, and travelled exten- 
 sively among the Peruvian Andes ; and they say that 
 no such rock-sceneiy is offered by Alps or Cordil- 
 leras. 
 
 And the waterfalls ! — I have been surfeited with 
 the beauty and wildness of them. It has been an 
 unusually wet spring, and the falls are aU in full 
 health and glee. While I write by this camp-fire, 
 the roar is filling my ears of the Yo-Semite Fall, — a 
 mile distant, lovely as the comet of 1858, which it re- 
 sembles in shape, — that leaps 1,497 feet in one pitch, 
 and then instantly takes another of 462, and then a 
 third of 518. They are all visible in one view ; and 
 a more entrancing picture it is impossible to con- 
 
FOUS. YEARS IN CALIFORNIA 187 
 
 ceive. This is the fall, I believe, that called a 
 
 tape-line, when he saw it last September. I am 
 sorry that he could not have seen it as I have enjoyed 
 ' it the last two days. 
 
 Last evening, before sunset, I visited the Bridal- 
 veil Falls, which leap 809 feet, without a break, over 
 a perpendicular granite wall. You see the curve 
 aloft, as the tide pours off, at least twenty feet from 
 the cliff; and the rainbows at he bottom would set 
 up all France in ribbons the next year. 
 
 To-day I have explored one of the upper ravines 
 of the valley, and have climbed above the Vernal 
 Fall, where the Merced River, as large as the Andros- 
 coggin at Berlin, pours from a perpendicular granite 
 rampart, 500 feet; and back of this, half a mile dis- 
 tant, just under an obelisk 2,000 feet sheer, the river 
 plunges 900 feet, "which is called the Nevada Fall. 
 And the walls that enclose this water-magniflcence 
 are more grand than the White-mountain Notch. 
 
 Above the Nevada Fall I climbed 1,500 feet again, 
 to see the snow-streaked turrets of the great Sierras. 
 Two of the peaks visible there, and quite near, are 
 13,600 feet. On that path, Alpheus Bull, who is 
 with me, killed a rattlesnake ; and on that path, 
 when we saw the gray old monarchs holding up the 
 frost wherever it could loosen, I thought of our visit 
 to Mount Hayes. 
 
 But the camp-fire bums low. Don't read this 
 
188 THOMAS STARB KING. 
 
 scrawl for any definite information, but only as a con- 
 fession of friendship, and of sorrow, that, even among 
 such material grandeurs, I am so far from one I 
 respect and love so deeply. Give cordial regards to 
 all your family. Add an especially warm greeting 
 to Mr. Tweed. "We are to start in the morning for 
 San Francisco, where I have had great and unde- 
 served success. Yet my heart is in New England. 
 Do write again to your constant friend, 
 
 T. S. King. 
 
 July 19. 
 P. S. — We have left the Yo-Semite ; and, after 
 two days' ride on horseback, are at CoulterviUe, 
 where I am to mail the letter. I forgot to say that 
 I visited the mammoth trees of Mariposas the day 
 before we reached Yo-Semite, and "enjoyed a glorious 
 afternoon-hour with the stately old conservatives. I 
 measured one that was ninety feet in girth at the 
 ground, and saw more than two hundred that ranged 
 from forty to seventy-five feet in circumference. 
 They have a tawny bark, entirely different in color 
 from any other trees of the California forests, and 
 look leonine in hue as well as mass. Yet how our 
 senses fool us ! I was immensely disappointed in 
 the first view of the ninety-feet Methuselah in the 
 Mariposas Grov;e, seen among such a crowd of ma- 
 jestic forest-senators. But yesterday I saw one 
 
FOUB TEARS IN CALIFOBNIA. 189 
 
 standing alone in a grove near Crane's Flat ; and I 
 said, " Here is a chap that comes up .to the mark." 
 How imposing in bulk and height he was, with his 
 branches upstretched like a harp ! .1 was truly over- 
 awed. Out came the tape-line. Surely he is over 
 ninety feet ! I put it around him. The fatal string 
 showed only fiftj'-six. — At home, among you big fel- 
 lows, / wasn't much: here, they seem to think I 
 am somebody. Nothing like the right setting! 
 
 Again yours, x. s. k. 
 
 The following letters, containing the tender- 
 est expressions of love and reverence, speak for 
 themselves : — 
 
 San Frakcisco, Jan. 1, 1861. 
 
 Mt deak Doctor, — I wish you a happy New 
 Year ! " It is too late,'' do you say ? Why, then, 
 do you live so far from decent climates and respecta- 
 ble people ? Surely you wouldn't have us begin our 
 year four weeks in advance, for the sake of suiting 
 your calendar on the frosty edge of notional and 
 sectional Massachusetts ! 
 
 With this note I send a draft, which, with your 
 name on the back, will persuade a hundred dollars 
 out of the gripe of the dragon that guards the vault 
 of the Bank of Commerce in Boston. What do you 
 suppose the draft is for? Perhaps to be used by 
 you in buying something for me on commission. No. 
 
190 THOMAS STARE KING. 
 
 Perhaps as a donation to Tufts College. No. Pos- 
 sibly to pay you for your two letters to me several 
 weeks since. They were worth more than this draft; 
 but, still, iVb. I am your debtor for them, and must 
 remain so some time longer. 
 
 This draft is an offering from two or three of your 
 friends here in my parish, to assure you of respect 
 and sympathy, and to make you believe that they 
 really do wish you a happy New Year, though it is 
 rather a dottar-ous way of showing it. They abso- 
 lutely forbid you to use the money in any other way 
 than for your private benefit, and make that the con- 
 dition of its acceptance. 
 
 You know that wise men from the East once 
 travelled westward, to make an offering of gold as 
 an expression of homage. The compliment has not 
 been returned sufficiently from the West to the East. 
 Two or three brethren here — shall I say, following 
 the leading of a very small Starr? — have determined, 
 on this opening of the year, to lay a slight tribute 
 at the feet of Eastern wisdom and excellence, in the 
 hope that it may be accepted as a feeble sign of their 
 internal &n(i frank incense of respect and admiration. 
 Would that it might give you as much pleasure to 
 receive it as it does us to send it! 
 
 Oui excellent friend Alpheus Bull — a large flake 
 of the true salt of the earth — it one of the number. 
 And let me say that he hotos to foreordination, with 
 
FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 191 
 
 the utmost freedom of will, in the matter of " Hunt's 
 Merchants' Magazine." He did not believe that the 
 affair was predestined till I read to him a chapter 
 from the prophet Hosea, and emphasized a passage 
 which took the BuU by the horns. This opened his 
 eyes. He saw the divine decree, and the stubborn- 
 ness of his wiU was instantly melted ; and I have 
 noticed a solemn joy in him since, which attends 
 those who are in harmony with the great currents 
 of Providence, and who find liberty in obedience. 
 
 (Don't let get hold of this fact : if he does, we 
 
 shall have fifty mortal columns on the simplicity and 
 wisdom of fatalism, — the very bull-beef of meta- 
 physics.) 
 
 I have been poorly during the autumn ; but am 
 better now, though not so strong as I used to be. At 
 present, I am delivering doctrinal lectures on Sun- 
 day evenings to overflowing houses. We have here 
 the tightest type of Orthodoxy, in connection with a 
 noble large-heartedness among the people. There 
 ought to be a strong Universalist church here ; and 
 will be, I hope, before a great while. 
 
 The State is worth fifty per cent more since the 
 late election, and the triumph of the Lincoln ticket 
 here. If we do not pay too large a price to keep 
 the Cotton States in, we have a good vista now. 
 But I fear the flimsy compromise spirit in Congress. 
 
 It is late, or rather early ; and I must stop. Soon 
 
192 THOMAS STARR KINO. 
 
 I shall send you a duplicate bill, to be used if this 
 fails to reach you ; and then I shall enclose a note 
 direct to our dear friend Tweed, to -whom I now send 
 cordial sympathy. And to you, my noble friend, and 
 aU yours, a prosperous and happy year ! 
 
 Always yours, T. S. King. 
 
 Eev. H. Balloij, 2d, D.D. 
 
 San Fkancisco, Jan. 19, 1861. 
 
 Mt deak Doctor, — I promised to write you 
 again by the next steamer. "Well, the boat of Mon- 
 day is " the next " surely. Perhaps you expected a 
 word by the steamer of the 11th; but that was the 
 last steamer. Having thus logically satisfied my 
 conscience, I proceed. 
 
 The second draft goes with this note. Oh that it 
 was a draft for a second hundred ! But it isn't. It 
 is the Siamese-twin of Draft No. 1, and will not be 
 worth a copper sixpence if Chang has been honored : 
 two bodies, but only one soul. (By the way, I 
 wonder if Chang and Eng have two souls ; and if 
 they are stitched inseparably, like their bodies. If 
 so, what if one should experience religion when d)dng, 
 and the other not? Propose the rfj-lemma to Dr» 
 Nehemiah. Tell him that I can't become Orthodox 
 till my mind is relieved. It is truly a critical junc- 
 ture with me.) 
 
 Doctor, it is the 19 th of January ; and such splen- 
 
FOUB YEARS IN CALIFOENIA. 193 
 
 did flashes of green, warm, vital, yellowish-green, 
 as my eye catches on smooth mountain-sides, every 
 time I lift my eye from this paper ! Warm, wet 
 clouds are driving over the bay from the south ; and 
 the sun, pouring through the rifts, kindles up the 
 slopes in a way to make an emerald envious. With 
 a dozen of you out here, I could make up my mind 
 to live in this land, or on this queer edge of it, where 
 there is no winter and no summer. Our climate is 
 a Yankee September stereotyped. The range in the 
 year in this city is just about the range of that month 
 in Boston. 
 
 I am lecturing a little. Last week I went to 
 MarysvUle, and spoke two nights in an Old-school 
 Presbyterian Church. The town is the noblest, in 
 buildings, spirit, and surroundings, I have seen in the 
 State. From the church-tower I saw the Sierra in 
 saintly whiteness along a horizon-line of 200 miles, 
 some of them 14,000 feet. They were 100 mUes 
 away, but seemed not over 30 ; and far on the 
 north, 230 miles air-line, the pyramid of mighty 
 Shasta, 16,000 feet, peeped over the dim plain, — a 
 knob of steady flaming gold. Do come out here, 
 and go with me to see it and Oregon. We'll go to 
 the summit of Shasta, and laugh at Mont Blanc. I 
 mean to. Love to everybody. Give the enclosed 
 note to Tweed, and believe me 
 
 Yours always, t. s. k. 
 
 13 
 
194 THOMAS STASS KING. 
 
 The hope that the climate might restore vital- 
 ity to his system was the great, and perhaps 
 the controlling, reason why Mr. King selected 
 California as a temporary field of labor. In 
 this he was disappointed. He writes to Mr. 
 Eyer, July 30, 1860, " My health last week 
 was wretched. I seemed to have some trouble 
 in the brain. For three or four days, I could 
 not write a word. Happily it is relieved now, 
 and I feel quite strong in the upper story, but 
 not so vigorous in body as I should like to. 
 . . . On Saturday I wrote a sermon on the Yo- 
 Semite, and its religious lessons, from the text 
 in the sixty-first Psalm, 'Xiead me to the rock 
 that is higher than I.' There was an immense 
 congregation to hear it. Aisles were filled with 
 seats, and extra settees were in all the vacant 
 space around the pulpit." And he wrote to 
 the same friend, Aug. 5, " It is four months to- 
 day since we left the wharf in New York, and 
 were borne away on the delectable ' Northern 
 Light.' I cannot say whether it seems shorter 
 or longer than that actual number of weeks. 
 If I am to be absent two years, one-sixth of the 
 
FOUR TEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 195 
 
 time has passed. I can't say that I look for- 
 ward with jubilance to a stay here five times 
 as long in future as I have already been ; but I 
 feel very sure that I shall not get away in less 
 time than that. I want to see all the debt of 
 the society paid, a new organ bought, a new 
 church-front erected, a new parish started in 
 another part of the city, and a good man in- 
 vited and on hand to step into my foot^tracks." 
 On the 16th of August, in a communication 
 in writing to Mr. Swain, the chairman of the 
 San Francisco Parish Committee, he says, "It 
 is useless for me to shut my eyes to the fact, 
 that I am not so well as I was when in Boston. 
 I experience strange debility and singular pains 
 and numbness in the brain. For writing pur- 
 poses, I am nearly worthless ; and the symp- 
 toms are the more serious from the fact that 
 my father's constitution (which in most respects 
 I seem to have inherited) snapped at about 
 thirty- six. He was a very strong man till 
 then ; but broke thus early, was good for noth- 
 ing for three or four years, and died at forty- 
 one." He adds, " If I shall not grow stronger 
 
196 THOMAS STAKB KING. 
 
 this fall and winter, I must return East next 
 spring, to stop all ministerial work, — per- 
 haps to cease all work on this planet." He 
 says that he had no fear of death ; and, but 
 for his anxiety for his family, he would be glad 
 to enjoy the perpetual rest which could only be 
 found beyond the grave. Mr. King had the 
 presentiment, when he resided in Boston, that 
 he should not live to see his fortieth birthday ; 
 and this lingered in his mind. Soon after the 
 date of this letter, he had another severe ill- 
 ness. "I preached," he writes Sept. 20, "last 
 Sunday, all day; was taken ill on Monday, 
 worse Tuesday, managed to speak at a high- 
 school celebration yesterday, and to-day am 
 down with chills and fevers." On the 17th of 
 December, he wrote to Mr. Eyer, "Randolph, 
 I have passed meridian. It is after twelve 
 o'clock in the large day of my mortal life. I 
 am no longer a young man. It is now after- 
 noon with me; and the shadows point back- 
 ward towards the east, though not yet towards 
 the Eastern States. I am thirty-six years old 
 to-day ; and it is the twelfth anniversary of 
 
FOUR TEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 197 
 
 our marriage. So I send you a salutation by 
 overland mail." 
 
 His labor in the line of his profession was 
 more than successful, — it was triumphant. 
 Statistics as to the number of pews purchased 
 by individuals, the amount of debt paid off by 
 liis parish, and the continued interest in his 
 preaching, gratifying as they are, give quite an 
 inadequate idea of the influence he was exerting 
 on the community. It was such, that, when 
 the first year of his engagement expired, he 
 could not regard his mission in California as 
 fulfilled ; and he agreed to remain another year. 
 He wrote to this effect to his Plollis-street 
 Society. He said to a friend, that he had a 
 desire " to preach the liberal gospel all over 
 California and Oregon. . . . The field," he wrote 
 March 20, 1861, "is great here, the work is 
 hard, the attractions are another way ; but 
 Providence seems to keep the path open for one 
 year more of labor on the edge of all things." 
 
 The Providence of the civil war now offered 
 another field of labor. Very early he had sym- 
 pathies and enthusiasms in the political line, 
 
198 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 but never entered the arena of party : lie con- 
 tinued to have them during his ministry. Yet, 
 whatever may have been his individual prefer- 
 ences, he wrote, when the Presidential cam- 
 paign of 1860 was pending, " I have not felt the 
 first stir of an emotion in poHtics in this' cam- 
 paign : I shouldn't know there is a campaign," — 
 so engrossed was he with the ambition of his 
 life. This state of mind, however, changed 
 into a feeling of the liveliest interest as it be- 
 came too evident that things were changing 
 from an ordinary question of party into a vital 
 struggle for the national unity. In the awful 
 face of the Rebellion, he read the look of a 
 mighty historic hour. " What a year to live in ! " 
 he writes ; " worth all other times ever known 
 in our history or in any other." The thought 
 was inspiration. As the theme of country took 
 possession of him, he felt a new power. His 
 doubts of a capacity for extempore speech went 
 to the winds, and he rose to be a great orator, 
 — just what his friends fifteen years before said 
 he could be if he willed it. Like Coeur de 
 Lion, he wielded a heavy mace, and hit hard ; 
 
FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 199 
 
 and the ring of his strokes on the anvil of the 
 public mind was clear and loud and telling. 
 " Taking the Constitution and Washington for 
 his text, he went forth appealing to the peo- 
 ple."* As he spoke on "Webster and the 
 Constitution," " Lexington and the new Strug- 
 gle for Liberty," " Washington and the Union," 
 — the titles of his political addresses, — his mag- 
 netic eloquence swept every thing before it. 
 He elaborated over this region the formula 
 of freedom, which, fourteen years before, he 
 analyzed with philosophical insight at the base 
 of Bunker HOl.-f He exposed the fatal heresy 
 of Secession. He repelled the incipient sugges- 
 tion of a Pacific Republic. He enforced the 
 paramount duty of the hour to stand by the 
 American Union ; for whatever of theory, of 
 party, of personal ambition, or of prejudice, in 
 this great hour, may have to pass away, it seems 
 to be the wUl of the American people that the 
 grand inheritance of the fathers of the Republic 
 shall not pass away. He was now accepted as 
 a representative man, — as an American patriot. 
 
 * Mr. Swain's Address. f See page 91. 
 
200 TEOMAS STABB KING. 
 
 His calls to speak were numerous, and his 
 labor was immense. He found the Union 
 sentiment strong everywhere. It was strong in 
 San Francisco. "It is lucky," he writes, "I 
 am sound on the Government question ; for, ten 
 days ago, the people mobbed a suspicious, half 
 Union, half Jeff. Davis, Southern minister, on 
 Sunday, and warned him not to preach in San 
 Francisco again." It was strong in the inte- 
 rior. "To-night," he writes from Yreka, "I 
 am to speak in a village with the sweet name 
 of Deadwood, and to-morrow at the very im- 
 portant and cultivated settlement of Rough and 
 Eeady. Scott's Bar wants me ; Horsetown is 
 after me ; MugginsviUe bids high ; Oro Fino 
 applies with a long petition of names. Mad 
 Mule has not yet sent in a request, nor Piety 
 Hill, nor Modesty Gulch ; but doubtless they 
 wiU be heard from in due time. The Union 
 sentiment is strong ; but the Secessionists are 
 watchful, and not in despair."* It is not my 
 
 * Mr. King ■writes as to California, Jan. 31, 1861, " California 
 is but sliglitly affected yet by the paniC'and the fright: we shall 
 adhere to the Northern Confederacy." Oct. 31, 1861, "The 
 State is safe against Southern tampering." 
 
FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 201' 
 
 purpose to write a history of his political career. 
 Suffice it to say that his labor was untiring. 
 "I should be broken down," he writes in the 
 midst of his engagements, "if I had time to 
 think of how I feel ; but I don't." And so this 
 service for country continued to the end ! 
 
 During tliis year, Mr. King lost his friend 
 Dr. Ballou ;* and in transmitting, Dec. 2, 1861, 
 a sum of money to his widow, he wrote, " This 
 amount was contributed by a few friends of 
 your noble departed husband in this city, as a 
 very slight expression to you of our sympathy, 
 
 * Hosea Ballou, 2d, was born Oct. 18, 1796, in Guilford, Tt. 
 His grandfatlier was a brother of Hosea Ballou. Dr. Ballou 
 in early life laid the foundation of a. profound scholarship in 
 large classical attainments. About 1815, he was settled as pastor 
 of the UniTcrsalist Church in Stafford, Ct. ; and, in 1821, in Eox- 
 bury, Mass., where he resided seventeen years. He was an inti- 
 mate friend of Thomas F. Kmg, whose keen appreciation of the 
 humorous elicited from Dr. Ballou letters and other things, full 
 of wit and humor, which Mr. King was accustomed to read in 
 private circles. Mr. Ballou, while living here, published " the 
 Ancient History of Universalism ; " an admirable work, in the 
 very spirit of a true history. He edited Sismondi's "History of 
 the Crusades," and was the editor of the " Expositor and Uui- 
 versalist Review." In 1838, he removed to Medford, Mass. ; and 
 here he edited the " Universalist Quarterly," to which Mr. King 
 became, from 1845, a voluminous contributor. Mr. Ballou, in 1845, 
 received from Harvard College the degree of D.D. ; and, in 1853, 
 
202 THOMAS STABR KING. 
 
 and a poor tribute from our respect and affec- 
 tion for him. I wish to confess to you how 
 deeply I feel his removal from us. He was 
 very dear to me. From boyhood I have looked 
 up to him with reverence, and in manhood I 
 loved him as deeply as my father did. He was 
 one of the world's true men. The inheritance 
 of his memory is a rich benefaction to his 
 family, and I rejoice that I can mourn with you 
 as one who knew him. The prospect of meet- 
 ing him again in Boston has been one of the 
 joys which I have foretasted often ; but now it 
 is one of the attractions of the world to come, 
 that it holds a friend so precious and so true." 
 
 Mr. King's pastorship was prosperous. " Our 
 parish," he writes Nov. 2, 1861, "is strong 
 and healthy. I am doing very httle extra work 
 the last few weeks. I am about commencing a 
 series of lecture-sermons on the Book of Job." 
 
 was appointed the President of Tufts College, which was now 
 established, and in which he was Professor of History and Intel- 
 lectual Philosophy. After a tour in Europe, he entered, in 1855, 
 upon the discharge of his duties. It is but simple justice to saj-, 
 that all connected with this infant institution had towards him 
 feelings of love and veneration. He was " one of the world's 
 true men." He died April 27, 1861. 
 
FOUR YEABS IN CALIFORNIA. 203 
 
 He now became convinced that it would be im- 
 possible to leave San Francisco at the conclu- 
 sion of his second year ; and, in a frank and 
 grateful communication to the Hollis-street So- 
 ciety, he resigned his position as its pastor.* 
 As the new year came in, he was in fine spirits. 
 "I never wrote so much," he says in January, 
 1862, "in any former year as this last year, 
 and yet am very strong. I gi-ow old in looks, 
 and am getting gray, but am feeling well." 
 Some of his friends mentioned in the papers his 
 name for senator ; and he wrote, "There is some 
 talk of making me senator ; but I would swim 
 to Australia before taking a political post." 
 His letters dwell on the concerns of his parish ; 
 and it rejoiced his heart to enumerate the active 
 benevolence that graced its rare prosperity. 
 
 The second anniversary of the commence- 
 ment of his ministry in San Francisco came 
 
 * I am indebted to Warren Sawyer, Esq., long a confidential 
 friend of Mr. King, the Chairman of the Hollis-street Society, 
 and named by Mr. King as one of his executors, for the free use 
 of the letters which were addressed to him from California, cov- 
 ering the whole period of Mr. King's labors in that State; also 
 for copies of Mr. King's communications to the Hollis-street 
 Society. The one alluded to in the text is in the Appendix. 
 
204 THOMAS STABR KING. 
 
 round four weeks after the birth to him of a 
 son. The spring was backward ; but loving 
 hands literally robed the church, on this Sun- 
 day, with flowers. Eoses draped the pulpit, 
 huns in festoons and wreaths on the chande- 
 liers, and were arranged in a mound on the 
 communion-table ; wreaths hung between the 
 windows ; on the gallery, in large letters of 
 roses and green, were the words " April Twenty- 
 Ninth, I860;" over him, on the wall, was a 
 cross of lilies ; and the arch under which he 
 stood, of twelve feet span, was covered with 
 calla lilies and green. He delivered an ap- 
 propriate anniversary-discourse. There was a 
 Sunday-school festival in the evening. He 
 arranged a service, to which the children, who 
 occupied the wing-pews, beautifully responded. 
 A hundred of them, of eight years old and 
 under, went to the pulpit, and received from 
 the pastor an exquisite bouquet ; when he read 
 and handed to each a scriptural motto, written 
 by him, with his autograph, on a small note- 
 sheet. Though the church was crowded, — 
 hundreds being unable to get in, — there was 
 
FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 205 
 
 almost breathless silence, except when the pas- 
 tor said something pleasant to a child, which 
 caused a smile and a rustle. Mr. King writes, 
 " The closing singing of ' Hail, Columbia ! ' was 
 tremendous." 
 
 The letter which contains this remark has the 
 following : " We are talking of a new church, 
 larger and nearer to the centre of the city. Next 
 week will decide, I think, whether or not the 
 movement will be made. I dread the work 
 and the new fetters to this longitude ; and yet 
 I should like to plan and paint one church, and 
 wafer my name to it. Leisure and rest, I fear, 
 will not come to me this side of the grave." 
 This was his project. He set his heart upon 
 the enterprise; and, before it was undertaken, 
 he pledged his energies to aid it, and headed 
 the subscription-list for it. He writes, "My 
 own thousand I have pledged ; but that will be 
 the smallest portion of my work. I mean to 
 raise an organ besides by lecturing, and super- 
 intend plans and work, and keep up the zeal to 
 the paying point, if the work is undertaken." 
 At length, the parish, which two years before 
 
206 THOMAS STABR KINO. 
 
 had been considered to be tottering, concluded 
 to build a costly church. 
 
 Months elapsed before this enterprise was 
 matured. In the interval, Mr. Bang, with char- 
 acteristic zeal, labored for the sick and wounded 
 soldier by promoting subscriptions to the Sani- 
 tary Commission. The cheerfulness with which 
 the people everywhere pour forth money out of 
 the impulse of grateful hearts, in all the States, 
 for this noble object, is a proud record for 
 American humanity. It was thus in California. 
 Starr King was now a power in the State : eyes 
 naturally turned to him as an exponent of such 
 a cause ; and he never grew weary in speaking 
 in its behalf. The coincidences in this life are 
 remarkable ; and it happened that one of the 
 earliest clerical brethren in New York to take 
 him kindly by the hand, Dr. Henry W- Bel- 
 lows, was the official channel through which 
 the magnificent contributions, made by CaU- 
 fomia to the Sanitary Commission, reached 
 their object. " Very busy," he writes Oct. 10, 
 1862, "I am at work, and speaking for the 
 fund for wounded soldiers much of my time. 
 
FOUR TEAMS IN CALIFORNIA. 207 
 
 We have already sent two hundred thousand 
 from our city to Bellows, and many thou- 
 sand from the State." And he writes glow- 
 ingly of the prospects of future contributions. 
 He was engaged in this magnificent labor when 
 he died. 
 
 His private letters show how, m the midst 
 of such labor, he watched the progress of the 
 new church. At length, on the 3d of Decem- 
 ber, 1862, the comer-stone of the splendid 
 edifice in Geary Street was laid. The day was 
 perfect. A great gathering of friends stood 
 an hour, during the ceremonies, with uncovered 
 headsj in the open air, needing neither overcoat 
 nor shawl, as they hung on the eloquent words 
 of their pastor, whose utterance was full of joy 
 and of faith. The occasion passed off hap- 
 pily. His letters, as he watched narrowly, 
 and at times impatiently, the progress of the 
 work, chronicle its vexations as well as its 
 triumphs. 
 
 A year was to elapse between the laying of 
 the comer-stone and the dedication ; and, dur- 
 ing the interval, Mr. Bong met cheerfully the 
 
208 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 calls that were made upon him. He spoke 
 eulogies on the gallant dead whose life went 
 out for their country. He gave the God-speed to 
 the soldier, as his face was turned to the battle- 
 field. " We send on by this steamer," he writes 
 to his sister Angela, Dec. 9., 1862, " our cav- 
 alry corps of one hundred picked and splendid 
 men for the Boston quota. They attended our 
 church last Sunday, and I gave them a charge. 
 Last night I spoke to them in their drill-room. 
 To-night the citizens give them a promenade 
 concert in our largest hall, and I have written a 
 letter to be read. To-morrow night they have 
 a theatre-benefit. If jou can see them in Bos- 
 ton, don't fail. I lectured once here also for 
 their benefit, and obtained five hundred dollars. 
 They are noble fellows. So is Master Fred- 
 erick, who is a good cavalry soldier in his father's 
 fort. He is supremely happy when he rides in 
 that way a-straddle. Joy runs out of his eyes." 
 He did this year a herculean work for the Sani- 
 tary Commission. He writes, November, 1863, 
 " I have been very busy organizing a new sub- 
 scription to the Sanitary Fund." To promote 
 
FOUR YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 209 
 
 tte objects of that commission, he spoke in the 
 principal places in California, visited Oregon, 
 traversed the Nevada and Washington Ter- 
 ritories, and went even to Vancouver ; and, 
 wherever he spoke, the people, in response 
 to his appeals, generously poured forth their 
 money. 
 
 He seemed to be conscious that he was mak- 
 ing a heavy trial of his frail frame. " The 
 next four months," he wrote June 25, 1863, 
 " will try my constitution more than any similar 
 period of my life." He was faithful to the 
 work of his parish, and untiring in his labor for 
 the church. His ideal was a structure which 
 should be an ornament to the city, an honor to 
 his society, and a type of the cause of Liberal 
 Chiistianity iu this region ; and, as he saw his 
 ideal becoming an embodiment, he could hardly 
 have written more lovingly had he been con- 
 scious that he was beholding what was to be a 
 stately mausoleum over his dust. He called the 
 church his monument ! He looked forward to 
 its completion as to be such an event in his life, 
 that, when his eyes should see it, he would be 
 14 
 
210 THOMAS STAEB KING. 
 
 ready to sing the Nunc dimittis of Simeon. 
 He wrote to Randolph Ryer, " If this project, 
 which is my own, goes through smoothly, I 
 shall have done my work here : " to his mother, 
 " I call it my monument ; and I hope it will 
 be paid for, as I should hate to have my monu- 
 ment mortffaged or sold under the hammer : " 
 to his sister Angela, "As soon as it is paid 
 for, I shall think that my mission is accom- 
 plished in California, and shall be ready to 
 surrender the driver's seat, the reins, the horses, 
 and the carriage, to a new and stronger arm : " 
 to S. P. Dewey, " When all is done, I shall 
 be ready to drop into my grave. I fear that 
 it is not written in the book of Providence, 
 that I shall visit Europe." The presentiment 
 is remarkable. That which was nourishing his 
 spirit was consuming its earthly casket. He 
 was in reality saying, — 
 
 " That time of year thou mayst in me behold, 
 When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang 
 TJpon those boughs which shake against the cold; 
 Bare, ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. 
 In me thou seest the twilight of such day, 
 As after sunset fadeth in the west, 
 
FOUM YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 211 
 
 Which by and by black Night doth take away; 
 Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. 
 In me thou seest the glowing of such fire 
 That on the ashes of his youth doth lie ; 
 As the death-bed whereon it must expire, 
 Oyiwimed wiili tiiat which it was nourished 6y." * 
 
 The new church was substantially finished 
 by Christmas. Mr. King writes of it to his 
 mother, -f "It is the most beautiful building in 
 the interior, for ordinary congregational worship, 
 that I ever saw. There are two hundred and 
 eighteen pews in it ; and we cannot now supply 
 the demand for seats. It wiU hold nearly fifteen 
 hundred persons. The building is lighted from 
 
 * The Chairman of the Parish Committee, in writing of his 
 labors in behalf of the new church, says, " How well he suc- 
 ceeded for as, let this magnificent edifice, so beautiful, so tasteful, 
 so grand, attest. What was the result to himself, lei that grave 
 aiiswer. For 1 solemnly believe, that to his devoted care and 
 anxiety and toil, in the erection of this building, may be attributed 
 much of that physical debility which undermined his constitu- 
 tion, and shortened his days. He gave us the church with his 
 life." — Address, p. 13. 
 
 t I am indebted to Mrs. Susan M. King, Mr. King's mother; 
 his aunt, Miss Sarah E. Starr, the thorough teacher of the Ger- 
 man language ; his sister. Miss Angela King, whose beautiful 
 readings are so acceptable to the public, — for files of letters of 
 Mr. King from an early date, from which citations have been 
 made in these pages. 
 
212 THOMAS STARB KING. 
 
 the ceiling chiefly, through windows set in 
 superb panels. Each window contains the 
 figure of a Greek cross in colors. The pulpit 
 wall is divided into three splendid arches, with 
 recesses : in the centre one, the pulpit ; at the 
 right of the pulpit, the organ and the choir 
 seats ; at the left of the pulpit, a baptismal font, 
 elaborately carved, with a spire of carved black- 
 walnut rising over it thirty feet. The side gal- 
 leries end before reaching the pulpit wall ; and 
 between the end of the galleries and the pulpit 
 arches, on each side, is a magnificent stained- 
 glass Gothic window. Over the back of the 
 gallery are three other round arches with re- 
 cesses. In the centre is a wonderfully noble 
 rose window, twenty-one feet in diameter, of 
 stained glass ; in the other two, Gothic win- 
 dows, also of stained glass. We have a wing- 
 building with beautiful parlor-rooms for sewing- 
 circles and meetings, and a Sunday-school 
 chapel in it that will hold three hundred. 
 There is a new organ, built here for the church, 
 costing thirty-five hundred dollars in gold. 
 That is my gift to the society." It was decided 
 
FOUR TEARS IN CALIFORNIA. 213 
 
 not to sell the pews to individuals, but to pay 
 for the building by subscription, and rent them 
 annually. They were rented for one year for 
 twenty thousand dollars in gold, and the plate 
 collections were estimated at five thousand; 
 which would be the largest sum realized in a 
 single society from the operation of the volun- 
 tary principle in support of religion — which 
 may be termed the American principle — there 
 is on record. "All our friends," Mr. King 
 says, " are very happy, and not a little proud, 
 over our success." 
 
 The day of dedication — Sunday, Jan. 10, 
 1864 — was a sacred festival to the pastor and 
 the society. The church was crowded. The 
 order of services consisted of a voluntary ; a 
 chant ; three original hymns ; the prayer of 
 dedication ; Te Deum ; Scripture lesson ; let- 
 ters from Eev. Messfs. Chaney and Alger, Drs. 
 Hedge and Dewey ; and an address by the 
 pastor. The last original hymn, by Mrs. E. 
 A. S. Page, was the following : ^- 
 
 " God ! ere heaven and earth were planned, 
 Adoring silence worshipped thee : 
 
214 THOMAS BTABR KING. 
 
 How the vast universe doth stand 
 The temple of thy majesty. 
 
 Its walls are wrought of sapphire bright; 
 Its countless spires are starry flame : 
 Suns on the boundless ether write 
 The sovereign beauty of thy name. 
 
 An earthly temple, by thy grace, 
 This day we dedicate to thee : 
 Deign to make here thy dwelling-place, 
 Thou that fiU'st immensity ! 
 
 Fold us beneath thy sheltering wings, 
 As here we worship at thy shrine : 
 Ours be the peace thy presence brings, 
 The gloiy and the praise be thine." 
 
 The service was impressive. " Many eyes," 
 Mr. King says, "moistened with my own, as 
 gifts were announced and words were read to 
 the congregation from Eastern friends, and espe- 
 cially from the Hollis-street Church." This 
 crowning scene, symbolic of the ripened grain 
 of the brave sower, was the complement of a 
 morning consecration to a worthy ambition. 
 Pastor and society looked forward, with faith as 
 well as hope, to a brilliant future of labor for 
 the Master's cause and kingdom in their new 
 home. Mr. King wrote to the Hollis-street So- 
 ciety, " May another year, if I am to live, offer 
 
FOUR YEABS IN CALIFORNIA. 215 
 
 me the privilege of thanking you and our 
 brothers of your fellowship within the dear old 
 church for their and your remembrance and 
 love!" 
 
 His letters to the East contain tender expres- 
 sions of love for New England, for Massachu- 
 setts, for Boston, and for old friends. Califor- 
 nia, he said, " was very kind ; but it was not 
 New England." Massachusetts was the only 
 place for him to live in. " My heart belongs 
 to Boston more than to any other city or 
 climate ; " and he was homesick for the East. 
 In a letter to a former associate in the naval 
 office, he refers to his navy-yard life, and sends 
 the warmest regards to some " whose faithftil- 
 ness in past days was not forgotten." His last 
 letters are in a cheerful vein. If he had a pre- 
 sentiment amounting to conviction of an early 
 death, still hope was the ruler of his spirit; 
 and, while he was ready to die, he was prepar- 
 ing to live. He reflected that his life since 
 boyhood had been one of great toil. He had 
 looked forward to each year as a season of rest ; 
 when there came instead new calls, new re- 
 
216 THOMAS STARE KING. 
 
 sponsibilities, and new labors. He now hoped 
 for a respite from his severe activities. His 
 plans for the future embraced a residence in 
 Germany for educational purposes ; then a re- 
 treat to his old home for quiet academic pur- 
 suits ; and then a realization of the ambition 
 of his early days, — the construction of a work 
 on philosophy. Short-sighted man would say, — 
 
 " Are these thy views ? Proceed, illustrious youth ! 
 And Virtue guard thee to the throne of Truth ! " 
 
THE CLOSING SCENE. 
 
 HOMAS STAER KING looked 
 grandly in life as he moved along 
 with ease, grace, and greatness. "I 
 should be very desirous to do perfectly whatever 
 I undertook," he wrote to a friend. Fidelity to 
 duty has been termed a characteristic of the Ger- 
 manic race. In his life, this is triumphant as a 
 ruhng principle. It appeared in bud and blos- 
 som in the endeavor to do his best as the pupil, 
 the shop-boy, the teacher, and the accountant ; 
 and it was seen in rich fruit and harvest in the 
 pastor and the man. He was true to himself, — 
 to his finer and nobler instincts, — to the dig- 
 nity of his nature. He was the idol of a hap- 
 py home, the centre of a beautiful hospitality, 
 
 [217] 
 
218 THOMAS STABR KING. 
 
 the light and life of a large religious societj; 
 and was successful in the great ambition of his 
 life, to be a preacher of the liberal gospel. He 
 was zealous in the social and intellectual activi- 
 ties which are bounded neither by party nor sect, 
 but which embrace all in their fold. He was a 
 leading spirit in the cause of the soldier. He 
 was the foremost citizen of a great State. He 
 was the Christian patriot, fuU of soul-power for 
 . country. He was a force in the community by 
 virtue of the sovereign sign-manual of Ameri- 
 can manhood. 
 
 EGs heart was far away from the field of his 
 labor. " Oh that I could fly to Boston I but 
 this is my post of duty," he writes ; and thus 
 a sense of duty, impelling him to self-denial 
 for his work's sake, kept him to his post. 
 He was busy with plans for the future ; devis- 
 ing new ways to interest and benefit his society, 
 and preparing for another campaign into the 
 interior of the country in aid of the Sanitary 
 Commission. As this soldier of the Cross, 
 wearing the breastplate of righteousness, stood 
 in the new temple of the Most High, its lines 
 
TEE CLOSING SCENE. 219 
 
 of beauty seemed to be smiles of joy. He 
 preached a few Sundays in this noble sanctuary. 
 He spoke from the text, " The liberal deviseth 
 liberal things ; and by liberal things shall he 
 stand." He announced for the next sabbath 
 the first of a series of evening vesper-services 
 which he had arranged ; and he remarked, in 
 view of the preparation he had made, that this 
 promised to be the most iateresting exercise of 
 the day. Man proposes : God disposes. 
 
 Mr. King said, on Friday, Feb. 26, 1864, 
 in answer to friendly inquiry in the street, 
 that he was unwell, had aching bones, a sore 
 throat, and felt like a sponge squeezed dry ; 
 and he was uncommonly sad and thoughtful. 
 He expressed fear and regret that he might 
 not be able to preach on Sunday, and more 
 especially on account of the peculiar service 
 that had been announced. He went to a so- 
 cial meeting of his society, but returned home 
 that evening a sick man. He was about the 
 house the next day ; though, as evening came 
 on, he was too unwell to meet a few friends 
 who were expected at tea, and retired to rest. 
 
220 THOMAS STAMR KING. 
 
 At the supper-hour, however, a bridal-party 
 came in, who had set their hearts on having 
 him perform the ceremony ; when, on being in- 
 formed of this, Mr. Eang, in his characteristic 
 spirit of duty and self-denial, rose from the 
 bed, came down, and complied with the re- 
 quest. Then, exchanging a few pleasantries 
 with his friends, slowly and with a tired air he 
 went up stairs to his room. He had the diph- 
 theria. It was announced on Sunday that he 
 was too ill to conduct the services ; which was 
 the first intimation to many of his society that 
 he was sick. 
 
 On Monday and Tuesday, medical treatment 
 seemed to be successful in overcoming the dis- 
 ease : but overwork had exhausted the vital 
 energies of his constitution ; and, on Wednes- 
 day, his extreme prostration created alarm. 
 On Thursday, dyspnoea, or difficulty of respira- 
 tion, supervened. About sunrise on Friday, it 
 was too evident that the angel of death was 
 near. He had a second attack of dyspncea. 
 His physician. Dr. Echel, before this said that 
 he feared his patient could not survive another 
 
TEE CLOSING SCENE. 221 
 
 attack; and, when this occurred, Mr. King 
 asked, " What is this ? — is this dyspnosa too ? " 
 when Dr. Echel replied that it was. " Can I 
 survive it ? " Mr. King asked calmly, looking at 
 the doctor ; when Dr. Echel answered that he 
 thought he could not. — " How long can I 
 live?" Mr. King asked. "Not half an hour." 
 was the reply. " Are you sure I cannot live 
 longer than that?" Mr. King asked; when 
 the doctor replied, "that he feared he could 
 not." * He was now free from suifering, and in 
 the full possession of" his faculties ; and no vain 
 wish or unmanly repining followed this solemn 
 conversation. His whole life had been " sus- 
 tained and soothed by an unfaltering trust." 
 " Not my wiU, but Thine, be done," had been 
 the habitual expression of his recognition of and 
 resignation to Divine Providence ; and he calm- 
 ly and lovingly proceeded to take the cup which 
 his heavenly Father presented. 
 
 * This conversation is given in the San Francisco Bulletin, 
 and is tacitly confirmed by a note from Dr. Echel, who requested 
 the editor to substitute " dyspnoea " for the word " pneumonia," as 
 was first printed. See also Mr. Swain's Address. 
 
222 THOMAS STABR KING. 
 
 Friends now asked him if lie had any thing 
 to say; and he replied, "Yes, a great deal to 
 say. I want, first, to make my will." For two 
 days, he had not been able to speak in a tone 
 above a whisper ; but his voice, responding to 
 the power of his will, came back, and he spoke 
 nearly as loud as ever. He dictated the will 
 to his friend Mr. Swain, who sat by the bed- 
 side : to which, as each paragraph was read, he 
 said, "All right;" and at the end said, "It is 
 just as I want it." He then hesitated, and 
 said, " Add that all other wills are hereby re- 
 voked : you know I have another wiU in Bos- 
 ton." He was now raised in bed ; and, with a 
 book for a desk, he affixed with a steady hand 
 his signature, " Th : Starr King," thus punctu- 
 ating the abbreviation, and putting beneath it a 
 curvature. This effort was followed by a few 
 minutes of exhaustion ; when smilingly he be- 
 gan to bid good-by to friends, who, one after 
 the other, went to the bedside. To one he 
 said, " Good-by, colonel ! " and, taking him 
 with both hands, added, " God bless you ! " 
 " Good-by, Sarah ! " he said to a domestic : " I 
 
THE CLOSING SCENE. 223 
 
 thank you for all you have done for us." To 
 the nurse he said, " Good-by, Kathleen ! — 
 take good care of Fretzie." He whispered to 
 his wife, "Be sure and tell Dr. Echel, I think 
 he has done every tiling a human agent could 
 do." And he said to her, "Do not weep for 
 me. I know it is all right. I wish I could 
 make you feel so. I wish I could describe my 
 feelings. It is strange ! I feel all the privi- 
 leges and greatness of the iuture." He ex- 
 pressed his wishes as to his manuscripts, and 
 spoke freely of family affairs. " I see," he said 
 to another, "a great future before me. It 
 already looks grand, beautiful. I am passing 
 away fast. My feelings are strange." His 
 wife asked if he had any special message to his 
 friends at home. "Tell them," he said, "I 
 went lovingly, trustfully, peacefully." In a 
 few moments, he said, "To-day is the 4th of 
 March : sad news will go over the wires to- 
 day." The chairman of his parish committee 
 now approached his bedside ; and he said, 
 " Good-by, Swain ! — keep my memory green. 
 I wish you to say to my society, that it is my 
 
224 THOMAS STAMR KING. 
 
 earnest desire that they pay the debt upon the 
 church, and not leave the burden to be carried 
 by my successor. I had rather they would do 
 this than erect a tombstone at my grave. Let 
 the church free of debt be my monument : I 
 want no better. TeU them these were my last 
 words, and say good-by to all of them for 
 me." 
 
 For a moment he was quiet, and seemed to 
 be sleeping. " Are you happy ? " he was asked ; 
 when, turning his head, -and looking at the 
 questioner with bright, full eyes, he gave the 
 sublime answer, "Yes, happy, eesigned, 
 TEUSTFUL." He now calmly and thoughtfully 
 repeated the twenty-third Psalm, " The Lord is 
 my shepherd ; " and as he went through, with 
 emphasis, the verse, "Yea, though I walk 
 through the valley of the shadow of death," 
 his voice thriUed with emotion ; and he raised 
 his eye and finger, as if in the pulpit, at the 
 words, " I will fear no evil ; for Thou art with 
 me ; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." 
 His little son was now brought to the bedside. 
 "Dear little fellow! he's a beautiful boy," he 
 
TEE CLOSING SCENE. 225 
 
 said ; and he kissed his hand to the child as the 
 nurse carried him away in her arms. He now 
 breathed slower and slower ; closed his • eyes ; 
 and, without a struggle or a pang, the spirit 
 which reached out in childliood's prayer passed 
 on to its rest in the bosom of the Infinite. 
 Witnesses of the solemn scene remark, that no 
 pen, no tongue, not even an angel's, can de- 
 scribe the sublimity of this triumphant death. 
 
 "A great and good and generous man is 
 dead," are the simple words of the journals in 
 relating the scene and the event. Their mourn- 
 ing columns, their generous tributes, their rec- 
 ord of what was said and done in memory of 
 the departed, is a faithful, and will be an endur- 
 ing mirror, reflecting the general and deep 
 sorrow, the passion, and the pathos of the pub- 
 lic grief. Before this mysterious open grave, 
 party names were powerless to divide the 
 Christian world ; and from every organization 
 the expression was spontaneous, full, and 
 noble. The like is only seen when the public 
 benefactor passes on to live and to speak as an 
 immortal. 
 
 15 
 
226 THOMAS STABB KING. 
 
 The day appointed for the funeral service 
 (Sunday, the 6th of March) dawned bright and 
 beautiful. The sun shone in unclouded splen- 
 dor. The surface of the Bay of San Francisco 
 was unstirred. The breeze was hardly suffi- 
 cient to ruffle the ionumerable flags which 
 hung at half-mast all over the city and the 
 shipping in the harbor. Though Nature was 
 thus smiling, the faces of the people wore the 
 sad expression there is in the time of calamity. 
 The remains of the deceased pastor were lying 
 in state on the altar at which he had ministered, 
 with a chaplet of spring violets on his breast, 
 and in the midst of the rarest flowers which 
 loving hands could gather. The national flag, 
 dressed with crape, draped the pulpit, and hung 
 in folds above the casket. Wreaths of Egyptian 
 lilies, waxen-white, hung in festoons around the 
 church. For three hours, — from nine o'clock 
 until twelve, when the doors of the church were 
 closed, — a continuous stream of people passed 
 round the aisles to look for the last time on 
 the deceased, on whose countenance a smile 
 still lingered. 
 
TEE CLOSING SCENE. 227 
 
 Though the desire was generally expressed 
 by societies and the people to join in a testi- 
 monial of respect, there was no procession. 
 At the afternoon hour fixed for the burial, 
 every stand-point was taken in the streets, 
 windows, and balconies, from which a glimpse 
 could be obtained of the church ; and some of 
 the adjacent roofs were covered with people.* 
 The members of the Unitarian Society, the 
 state and city officials, and the friends, passed 
 through a military guard to the side-door, and 
 thence into the church. When the main entrance 
 was thrown open, the spacious building was 
 filled to its utmost Capacity. The mass of 
 people outside stood uncovered during the cere- 
 monies. The ritual of the Masonic order was 
 then repeated; its chaplain, Eev. Alfred B. 
 Kittredge, reading the twenty-third Psalm. As 
 minute-guns were fired by the direction of the 
 national authorities, and as the organ sounded a 
 requiem, and the choir chanted the chorus, the 
 
 * I am indebted to Mr. William F. Stevens of San Francisco 
 for copies of the journals of that city which contain accounts of 
 the death and funeral of Mr. King. 
 
228 THOMAS STABB KING. 
 
 body, wrapped in the national flag, was lowered 
 into the vault beneath the altar by the brethren 
 of the craft. A San Francisco journal says, 
 " When the tomb was closed, the throng began 
 to disperse from the resting-place of one who 
 was perhaps more deeply beloved by a vast 
 majority of our people than any other who has 
 lived and toiled and died among us." Only the 
 language of the place and the time can do justice 
 to the love and gratitude that strewed flowers on 
 this grave. " He sleeps the sleep of the just," 
 it was said ; " but his name is indelibly written 
 upon the State of his adoption, — not in letters 
 of gold, to be blent and lost with ten thousand 
 other names ; not in characters of what he 
 brought out of it, but of what he brought into 
 it, planted in it, and made to spring up an eter- 
 nal autograph. Farewell to thee in bodily 
 form, great and gentle soul ! Farewell to thee, 
 most eloquent, most pure of heart, most joyous 
 of nature ! We will not mourn for thee as 
 lost : — 
 
 We only know that thou hast gone 
 
 From God's own hand to God'S) own hand. ' " 
 
THE CLOSING SCENE. 229 
 
 On the evening of this burial scene on the 
 Pacific shore, the Charlestown Society held a 
 commemorative service, which was announced 
 when the telegraph communicated the intelli- 
 gence of the death of their former pastor. 
 The meeting was large, attentive, and sympa- 
 thizing. On the spot where the manly struggle 
 for culture began, and the ambition to be the 
 Christian minister grew, learned and eloquent 
 divines paid touching tributes to the beautiful 
 life which had received its crowning. In the 
 congregation were the companions of his boy- 
 hood, his former pupils, his early friends and 
 parishioners, who saw the purity and brilliancy 
 of his youth, and felt the magnetic power of his 
 manhood ; and the deep feeling evinced, as they 
 listened to the exercises, the prayer and speech 
 and dirge and written word, attested the hold 
 which he retained on their aifection.* It was 
 
 * The church in Charlestown in which Mr. King preached 
 was then undergoing repairs ; and the use of the Harvard Church 
 (Dnitarian) was promptly tendered by Eev. Dr. Ellis, who is the 
 pastor of this society. Addresses were made by Eev. Dr. Ellis, 
 Kev. Charles H. Leonard, Eev. Dr. Bartol, Eev. Dr. Hedge, and 
 Eev. Thomas B. Thayer. The entire service gave uncommon 
 satisfaction to the friends of Mr. King. 
 
230 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 an appropriate Christian service, done in love, 
 and at nearly the hour when all that was mortal 
 of Thomas Starr King was committed to the 
 earth. 
 
 At the time of this testimonial, little more 
 was known than that the pastor was dead, and 
 that he was "happy to go." In a month, full 
 accounts were received of the event. Then the 
 HoUis-street Society held a similar memorial 
 service.* Their church was crowded. The 
 vesture in which the deceased had preached lay 
 on the pulpit; on which, and on the font in 
 front, were wreaths of flowers. The choir chant- 
 ed the Psalm which the dying pastor repeated ; 
 selections of Scripture were read ; prayer was 
 
 * The service at Hollis' Street was on Sunday evening, April 
 3, 1864. Ttie exercises were similar to tliose in Charlestown, 
 consisting of reading selections of Scripture, and prayer, by the 
 pastor, Eev. Mr. Chaney; singing by the choir; and elaborate 
 addresses by Eev. Edward E. Hale, Edwin P. Whipple, and 
 Kev. Dr. Chapin. 
 
 The " Evening Transcript " of April 4, 1864, contains a full 
 report of the beautiful addresses made on this occasion. Its 
 editor, Daniel H. Haskell, Esq., was a warm friend of Mr. 
 King ; and I am indebted to his courtesy for the use of a scrap- 
 book containing Mr. King's letters to this journal, and other 
 favors. 
 
THE CLOSING SCENE. 231 
 
 offered ; and tributes were uttered in calm, well- 
 chosen, and beautiful words. The service was 
 simple and impressive. "The large assembly 
 separated, feeling that the tributes to the de- 
 parted had been strictly just ; fitly commemo- 
 rating his commanding and manly career, and 
 also those traits of his character which mark 
 the inner life of the Christian. 
 
 ' Let the light 
 Stream on his deeds of love, that shunned the sight 
 Of all but Hearen, and in the book of Fame 
 The glorious record of his virtues write, 
 And hold it up to men, and bid them claim 
 A palm like his, and catch from him the halloived ilame.' " 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 I. 
 
 LETTER OF ME. JOSHUA BATES ON ME. KING'S 
 SCHOOL -DAYS. 
 
 BiCHABD FeOTHISGHAM, EsQ. 
 
 Deae Sir, — In a recent conversation relating 
 to our mutual friend, the late Rev. T- Starr King, 
 you requested me to furnish you with some reminis- 
 cences of the school-daya of that most remarkable 
 and gifted man. I most cheerfully comply, not only 
 from my sincere love of the man, but also from the 
 consideration that some impressions I may commu- 
 nicate will be an incentive to the young to imitate, 
 at least in some degree, his virtues ; and to be 
 cheered on to duty by the example of a life of 
 such singular purity and simplicity, activity and 
 usefulness. 
 
 I well remember the first entrance of that inter- 
 esting boy, T. Starr King, to the school under my 
 
 [236] 
 
236 THOMAS STABS KING. 
 
 charge : his gentleness of manner, his beaming 
 eye, his expressive face, his whole bearing and de- 
 meanor, come up with all their freshness in delightful 
 remembrance. He immediately impressed me as a 
 lad of uncommon promise ; and so soon did he give 
 evidence of superior endowments, that I at once took 
 the liveliest interest in his success. I soon found 
 that his mind grasped and comprehended with won- 
 derful acumen every subject presented to his con- 
 sideration. As a scholar, young as he was, he took 
 the foremost rank in a class of lads remarkable for 
 talent, and many of whom have in later years held 
 important positions in civil and political life. 
 
 His recitations in the English department were 
 remarkably clear and methodical ; showing such a 
 grasp of mind in expression of thought, as at once 
 conveyed the impression of maturity in mental ac- 
 quisition far beyond his years. 
 
 In the classics he excelled. For accuracy of 
 translation and beauty of diction, I have never known 
 his superior in the schoolroom. His confidence, his 
 self-possession, sweetness of voice, and beauty in 
 translating, always gave a charm and freshness to 
 his lessons. Often, as I remember his recitations in 
 Cicero and VirgU, have I called to mind a remark 
 made by my late venerated father, in speaking of 
 the celebrated Buckminster, his college classmate, 
 — that, on the morning of examination for admission 
 
APPENDIX. 237 
 
 to Harvard College, young Buckminster, a lad of 
 thirteen years, arose for his examination ; and with 
 such freedom of translation, beauty of language, 
 richness in intonation of voice, accomplished his 
 allotted task, that professor and pupils were com- 
 pletely entranced in wonder and delight. 
 
 In composition, I think I can truthfully say, I 
 never had a pupil his equal ; one so systematic and 
 methodicsd in logical conclusions, in vigor of thought, 
 and choice selection of language for the illustra- 
 tion of any subject given out for his investigation. 
 Among the many themes assigned to him on difiFer- 
 ent occasions, I well remember one on the " Character 
 of Washington," first written in English, and then 
 transposed into Latin, when he was only about thir- 
 teen years of age. So favorably did this impress me, 
 that I took occasion to hand it to two distinguished 
 scholars for perusal ; both of whom pronounced it a 
 remarkable production for one so young. 
 
 His declamations were always given with much 
 accuracy, force of expression, sweetness and clear- 
 ness in articulation, and in an impressive and grace- 
 ful manner. Many, in later years, who have heard 
 him in the lecture - room and the pulpit, have 
 noticed and been deUghted with that eloquence in 
 matter, and style of delivery, which so often gave 
 such peculiar charm and fascination to all his dec- 
 lamatory exercises in the schoolroom. 
 
238 THOMAS STARR KING. 
 
 The chief and distinguishing characteristic, how- 
 ever, of his school-life, consisted in his sincerity, 
 purity of heart, honesty of purpose, and uniformly 
 gentlemanly deportment. I can call to remem- 
 brance no act or word in his school-days to cen- 
 sure or disapprove. Always cheerful, industrious, 
 and conscientious, he left no duty unperformed, but 
 lived up to all the requirements of the schoolroom 
 with the most scrupulous exactness. I always felt 
 that I had at least one pupil whose whole influence 
 was on the side of nobleness, justice, and truth ; and 
 whose example in all respects, by the wayside, on 
 the playground, and in the schoolroom, was exerted 
 in sustaining and upholding wise and judicious regu- 
 lations ; which to every teacher is a source of un- 
 mingled pleasure. Dr. Arnold, the late celebrated 
 teacher of the Kugby School, said, that, when his 
 pupUs went with him in heart and influence, there was 
 no post in England he would prefer to the one he 
 occupied. If our departed friend had been a mem- 
 ber of his distinguished school, I venture nothing in 
 asserting that no one of his pupils would have had 
 a firmer place in his affections, if from no other con- 
 sideration than this, — that he would have been al- 
 ways found foremost in conscientiously doing all in 
 his power to exert an influence in sustaining, in letter 
 and spirit, the regulations of the schoolroom, and the 
 requirements of the teacher ; and, in his in and out 
 
APPENDIX. 239 
 
 door example, always illustrating in word and deed 
 whatsoever things are pure, lovely, honest, and of 
 good report. 
 
 After Mr. King closed his connection with school, 
 tlie pleasant relations that had always existed be- 
 tween US, as teacher and pupil, continued in all their 
 freshness and confidence. We often met in public 
 and private, and always with mutual pleasure. His 
 course of study, his present pursuits, and his plans 
 for future life, were explained and expressed with 
 that frankness and simplicity which was a chief char- 
 acteristic of his earnest and confiding nature. A 
 short time after his settlement over the HoUis-street 
 Church, in Boston, he was appointed chairman of the 
 committee on the school over which I now preside. 
 His visits were frequent, pleasant, and profitable to 
 all concerned. I can never forget the lively interest 
 he always manifested in every thing pertaining to 
 the best welfare of the school ; and I have no doubt 
 many of my former pupils remember with much 
 interest and profit the tender and soul-stirring ap- 
 peals he so touchingly made in his most welcome 
 visits, on the importance of appreciating their many 
 privileges, and faithfully performing all school-duties, 
 so that they might, in the future, enter upon the 
 active duties of life. Christian citizens, men pure in 
 heart, strong in mind, healthy in body, obedient sub- 
 jects, wise rulers. 
 
240 THOMAS STABS, KING. 
 
 The life of Mr." King, from early youth to the 
 grave, waa always sincere, pure, enthusiastic. His 
 earnest nature, his glorious aspirations, his love of 
 the true 'and the beautiful, his honesty of heart in 
 all he said and did, gave a peculiar charm to his 
 eventful Ufe. He constantly exemplified in all he 
 did that principle and moral thoughtfulness were the 
 controlling motives of action. 
 
 He wielded, at all times and under aU circumstan- 
 ces, a moral power, and maintained and ever exhib- 
 ited a force of character, a determination to carry 
 out principles, a consecration to his work, a com- 
 plete abandonment of self in the discharge of duty, 
 which convinced every one of the uprightness and 
 purity of his intentions. The true humility and the 
 unaffected simplicity of a life of such unresting dili- 
 gence, gave a daily and living enforcement to the 
 truth, that "life is real, life is earnest." 
 
 The emanation from his example permeated the 
 atmosphere around him ; and others could not help 
 being invigorated with the belief that they, in some 
 measure, should go and do likewise. His name 
 will ever be fragrant in our memory ; and his spirit, 
 grateful as the breath of morning, will perpetuate 
 his fame and influence. Called thus suddenly and 
 young from scenes of influence and activity, leaving 
 an aching void in many a heart, we can all, in sub- 
 mission and trust, most truthfully say of our departed 
 
APPENDIX. 24:1 
 
 friend, that " that life was long which answered life's 
 
 great ends." 
 
 I am yours most truly, 
 
 Joshua Bates. 
 Boston, April 16, 1861. 
 
 n. 
 
 LETTER OF PROFESSOR TWEED. 
 
 College Hill, April 26, 1864. 
 Mb. F'botbhighah. 
 
 Dear Sik, — I well remember going to Medford, 
 on the 4:th of July, 1845, to iear the oration to be 
 given by Mr. King, or Starr, as we all called him. 
 It was a beautiful day, and the large Unitarian 
 church was well filled. Rev. C. Stetson and Dr. 
 Ballou went into the desk with the orator. After 
 the preliminary exercises, they came down, and occu- 
 pied a pew in front of the pulpit. Dr. Ballou was 
 evidently not qmte at ease. He knew that the audi- 
 ence contained many discriminating and critical 
 minds not particularly tolerant of showy rhetoric, 
 if it lacked the essential requisites of just and vigor- 
 ous thought ; and I think he had not yet witnessed 
 any of Starr's public performaaces. The doctor's 
 accustomed caution manifested itself in every Kne 
 16 
 
242 THOMAS STABB KING. 
 
 of his tell-tale face. His compressed lips and con- 
 tracted brow showed that he distrusted, or feared at 
 least, the ability of his young fiiend to meet the 
 demands of his audience. 
 
 Not so, however, with Starr. With that quiet 
 self-possession which all who ever heard him must 
 have noticed, and which was equally removed from 
 an tmmanly diffidence and an offensive assurance, he 
 began. Soon came some of those crystallized state- 
 ments sparkling with all the tints of the rainbow, 
 for which he was so remarkable. Mr. Stetson, who 
 never could enjoy a good thing alone, turned to Dr. 
 Ballou and others, nodding approval ; when another 
 and another grand thought or splendid image, uttered 
 in those rich tones which all will remember, made 
 such constant calls upon hLs admiration, that he 
 seemed likely to share about equally the attention of 
 those near him, with the orator. He could not sit still, 
 and took no pains to, but manifested the most unequi- 
 vocal symptoms of deUght. Dr. Ballou, less demon- 
 strative, though probably not less pleased, gradually 
 relaxed the tension of his muscles, at first expressing 
 a quiet satisfaction, then delight, then admiration. 
 Those only who were intimately acquainted with the 
 doctor can have any adequate idea of the breadth 
 and compass of expression in his serene countenance. 
 
 Starr's sensitive mature interpreted, as by instinct, 
 every shade of feeling ; and, as he told me after- 
 
APPENDIX. 243 
 
 wards, " when the doctor's face was all aglow with 
 satisfaction, he knew it was all right." 
 
 As soon as the oration was completed, Mr. Stetson 
 stepped into the desk, and, pressing the young ora- 
 tor's hand, said, in a whisper, " it was like Charles 
 Lamb's roast pig, — good throughout, no part better 
 or worse than another." 
 
 I may add that Mr. Stetson and Dr. Ballon were 
 the true exponents of the audience. It was a com- 
 plete success. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 B. F. Tweed. 
 
 ni. 
 
 MR. KING'S LETTER RESIGNING THE PASTORSHIP 
 OF THE HOLLIS-STREET SOCIETY. 
 
 San Francisco, November 25, 1861. 
 
 Messrs. Waeeen Sawyeb, Thomas Bancroft, and Na- 
 thaniel Hakeis, Standing Committee of Hollis - street 
 Parish. 
 
 I DID not receive your very admirable letter, 
 representing the condition and interests of the 
 Holhs - street parish, until a day or two since, — 
 one month after it was mailed in Boston. There is 
 now no pony express by which this reply can be 
 sent to you. 
 
244 THOMAS 8TABB KING. 
 
 With great regret I have read the account of 
 losses which the parish has sustained in its material 
 affairs. And yet I must congratulate you, that after 
 so many months of war and disaster, and with such 
 a noble account of services rendered to the country 
 and to beneficent enterprises, you commenced a new 
 financial year, not only free from debt, but with money 
 in the treasury. There has been' systematic and 
 efficient labor in behalf of the interests of the socie- 
 ty, and for Christian objects during the year, which 
 calls for the tribute of admiration and gratitude. 
 
 To your inquiries, very kindly and delicately made, 
 as to the probabilities of my return, let me answer 
 you as frankly, as possible. 
 
 At no moment of my residence here has my heart 
 wavered in its allegiance to New England and Bos- 
 ton. The ties have strengthened, or rather ab- 
 sence and distance have shown me how much of a 
 New-Englander I am. No man, I believe, could 
 have gone from your city less fitted to be an emi- 
 grant to a life so different and a coast so far, than I. 
 And constant and responsible labor, attended as men 
 sometimes assure me with valuable and cheering 
 results, has not been able to alienate my interests 
 from you, or to make the prospect of a permanent 
 abode here — grand as this State is, and as its 
 future must be — any more inviting. 
 
 But it seemed to me to be a duty to come here. I 
 
APPENDIX. 245 
 
 believe that it was. I cannot regret my removal. 
 And, in spite of my inclination, I believe that it is 
 my duty to stay. 
 
 These are military times. The laws of enlist- 
 ment, and the commands from headquarters, over- 
 ride all private inclinations and will. When I see 
 what still remains to be done here, — duties which 
 a year ago could not have been dreamed of, — and 
 what disasters would be threatened if I should 
 decide to go next April, I dare not yield to my 
 impulses, and let my desire to be again with old 
 fiiends, and in the home of my heart, dictate my 
 decision. If I could say, that, at the end of my 
 second year of absence, I should return to Boston, 
 it would give me more pleasure than any of you 
 could experience. But I dare not say so. And 
 although I am under no pledge whatever, and have 
 not been, to remain here an hour beyond next April, 
 I see that it would be wrong to leave so soon. 
 
 If this, brethren and friends, is a disappointment 
 to any of you, remember that it is so to me more than 
 to any of you. If I could look forward to years of 
 health and service as your minister, with a furnished 
 mind and a brain refreshed, I assure you that it would 
 give me deep and thorough joy. 
 
 But as I must stay in this State one year longer 
 at least, and as the shadows lie over the path beyond 
 that time, and as I cannot tell if then, should I live, 
 
246 TE0MA8 8TABB KINO. 
 
 my overworked mind and fiame will be fit for con- 
 tinued service with you or anywhere, I must reluc- 
 tantly but unavoidably surrender into your hands 
 all that is left of the trust that has bound me to 
 your noble pulpit and your nobler band. 
 
 It is not for me now, my dear friends, to urge you 
 to concentrate your zeal and efforts in support of 
 the church for which it was my privilege to labor 
 with you during many years. "When a regiment is 
 thinned in battle, the officers and privates that remain 
 are none the less devoted to its honor and its colors, 
 especially if it holds a position on the field of great 
 importance in the general conflict ; and, if it has a 
 historic renown, its tattered flag is then dearer than 
 the bright stripes and clean stars were when the 
 ranks were fuU. But it is not for me now to show 
 you what a powerful nucleus you have for a strong 
 working body in Boston, nor to urge you to begin 
 with a good heart to seek for a minister to unite 
 his fortunes with you, while you have so many work- 
 ing members, and are free from debt. 
 
 Words that refer to duty and conscience are out 
 of place trovn my pen now. And I cannot heartily 
 use them. Ihey are too cold. It is for me, as I 
 recall the scenes which nearly twelve years of labor 
 with you have left in my memory, to thank God for 
 my association with you, and to ask pardon for re- 
 missness in service. I close the record with pain, 
 
APPENDIX. 247 
 
 when I think of the friends from whom I must part 
 as parishioners. I dose it with something like satis- 
 faction, when I think that now you are at full liberty 
 to obtain a minister who shall be able to serve you 
 more faithfully than I have done. 
 
 Never again in life can I expect to be associated 
 in parochial fellowship so honorable, satisfactory, 
 and precious. But I bow to the voice that bids me 
 remain in a field so distant from my heart's choice. 
 And I invoke for all of you, and for your families, 
 the favor and protection of Him who is our coun- 
 try's Gtod and hope, and the defender of all earnest 
 and trusting toU; and, with gratitude that will 
 never fail for all your kindness and fidelity, I am, 
 in sadness and with affection, 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 Ths. Stake King. 
 
 Boston : Printed by John Wilson & Son.