^^t^r^--^'/ 
 
 ''^ 
 
 i 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
Columbia ©nitjersttp 
 
 intljfCttpofJlrttitark 
 
 THE LIBRARIES 
 
r.OTnny JJPT?y\T>Y 
 
 •^ book :s due ^t wo wt eita- > ir( r-^ ths IpsI 
 
 if mc 
 
 
 ^»:i^ 
 
 ^>>Mm 
 
 ^^«^^^^t 
 
 ^. T*^"'-r^ 7/r{^r4'-^--5^^--=-:--'^^ 
 
'SHEPHEED' SMITH 
 
 THE UNIVERSALIST 
 
I 
 

'SHEPHERD' SMITH 
 
 THE 
 
 UNIVERSALIST 
 
 THE STOEY OF A MIND 
 
 BEING A LIFE OF 
 
 THE REV. JAMES E. SMITH, M.A. 
 
 EDITOR OF 'family HERALD,' 'CRISIS,' ETC., AND AUTHOR OF 'THE DIVIXK 
 DRAMA OF HISTORY AND CIVILISATION" 
 
 BY 
 
 W. ANDERSON SMITH 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'LEWSIANA,' ' BENDERLOCH,' ETC., ETC. 
 
 LONDON 
 SAIMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY 
 
 Limited 
 
 St. ©unstan's 1|ousc 
 Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.G. 
 
 ] [^$';rtghts res6^''v'ed] '^ '/ '» i ii' ', / 
 

 'IJ-^1^ 
 
\ 
 
 /►> 
 
 I- 
 
 f PREFACE. 
 
 rpHE subject of this Biography has been dead for 
 -*- much more than a generation, but his life could 
 not well have been written earlier. His brother, the 
 late Dr. Eobert Angus Smith, FJa.S., was often asked 
 to produce a life of the famous Editor of the Family 
 Herald, but materials were awanting, and the time 
 was not ripe. Since his death, however, many of the 
 opinions which he disseminated, and for which he 
 fought most dcA^otedly, have become the common 
 heritage of modern thinkers, and views which were 
 in his day received as blasphemous are read with 
 equanimity. That he had much to do with the intro- 
 'duction of this liberality of mind towards all opinions, 
 no one who knows his story can well doubt ; and the 
 man who had the largest audience of his time for so 
 many years, and kept such a remarkable hold of it 
 notwithstanding the boldness of his views, must have 
 been a personality worthy of study. He was, indeed, 
 one of the great pioneers of modern thought. He 
 was the first to introduce and fight the standing of 
 the Penny Press in London in its broadsheet form, 
 along with Cousins as publisher. He was the first 
 to introduce it in its octavo form, with Biggs as 
 publisher. He edited the Crisis for Robert Owen, the 
 Socialist, while lecturing against Atheism and Mate- 
 rialism, and seeking to spiritualise their organisation, 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 which he eventually broke up. In the Shepherd — 
 whence his popular name in literary London — he 
 expounded one of the grandest systems of Univer- 
 salism ever promulgated, stirring up the minds of men 
 in distant lands. Ere the Family Heredcl became the 
 depositary of his opinions, as prepared for the general 
 public, he influenced by tongue and pen all the rest- 
 less and energetic thought of the time. Always ready 
 to give a fair hearing to novel phenomena however 
 unpopular, he was for many years one of the most 
 virile intellectualities in the London world. 
 
 But his great ' mission ' was that of ' Universal 
 Charity ' in opposition to the narrow ' Faith ' of the 
 Scottish Church, in which he had been educated. 
 
 I have sought to give his vera effigies from his own 
 pen and contemporary correspondence, to extenuate 
 nothing as well as set down nought in malice, believ- 
 ing he would prefer to be treated according to his own 
 views of biography. Cuttings from such of his cor- 
 respondence as that with Lady Lytton (published with 
 the express permission of her executrix) might be 
 made to sadly misrepresent his mind. They require 
 to be read up to, so as to understand the meaning he 
 attaches to the expressions used. His opinions were 
 often expressed in a manner to give offence — in 
 opposition to his natural spirit. His judgment of his 
 brothers was too harsh ; for, with all their shyness and 
 lack of worldly wisdom, they were finer spirits and 
 more akin to his own mind than he gave them credit 
 for. His correspondents frequently complain of his 
 misunderstanding them ; and he was undoubtedly 
 impatient intellectually of inferior minds. Yet his 
 life requires little of his own charity ; morally, it can 
 stand the most rigid investigation, while he was no ^ 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 ascetic, taking even stimulants in moderation. Thus 
 his friend Hugh Doherty, author of HHoriimc ct la 
 Nature, writes : — ' Your uncle was very temperate 
 and sociable in his habits of life as a laborious 
 student ; ' and as they were intimate, and laboured 
 together, and frequently dined together from 1836 till 
 1856, Doherty was well able to judge. 
 
 Yet he sacrificed his body to his ' mission,' which in 
 itself may be considered an immoral act, as his first 
 duty to his mind was to have kept his body whole- 
 some and more vigorous. Looked at strictly, he 
 ought to have taken more care of his health — he had 
 no right to die when he did ; but he considered his 
 ' mission ' ended, his life lived, and he looked forward 
 to a spiritual existence unhampered by his physical 
 necessities. What is wrong for the world is not 
 necessarily wrong for an individual, and he may not 
 be judged as others with a less overpowering mentality. 
 
 He produced a lasting impression on his friends. I 
 quote from one who was intimate with him through 
 the years of his maturity : — ' From the year 1833 my 
 recollection of your uncle is vivid. When a child I 
 attended, with my mother, all the lectures he delivered 
 in Charlotte Street and Newman Street at the time he 
 was trying to convince the Socialists of the truth of 
 Christianity. I used to drink in his words, and in my 
 heart of hearts I reverenced and ivorshipped him. I can 
 see him standing now, calm and collected, while being 
 
 browbeaten by his adversaries I have in latter 
 
 years learned nearly all his wonderful articles in the 
 Shepherd hy heart, so that when I meet him in heaven 
 I may know all he thought and all he felt. Then 
 there is the Family Herald, all the leaders for fourteen 
 years written in our house ; but it is not those articles 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 that show his inner life.' That is certain! His mind 
 was too wholly absorbed in the things of the Spirit. 
 In 1835 he had forestalled Spurgeon. 'AVhat indi- 
 vidnal but myself can keep up a weekly paper on 
 theological subjects. There is not a clergyman in 
 Scotland would find readers, and I doubt if England 
 could furnish as many as Scotland,' he writes his 
 brother. The * development ' of the religious idea was 
 as clear to him as to Max Mliller ; while in 1837 he 
 declares : — ' Future generations, when they have sepa- 
 rated the wheat from the chaff, will find to their astonish- 
 ment that the wheat of all religions was the same, and 
 that men w^ere only quarrelling about the chaff.' 
 
 I have scarcely succeeded in giving sufficient promi- 
 nence to his artistic life. He attained a very high 
 excellence as an artist, and it is certain that his 
 artistic temperament struggled with his religious bias 
 throuohout his life. The absence of the ele^^ancies 
 and refinements to which his soul aspired — in opposi- 
 tion to his religious views and all they led to — 
 undoubtedly had a considerable influence in disgusting 
 him with a world to which he could not properly 
 mutually accommodate his necessities and his aspira- 
 tions. Sackcloth and ashes did not convene with 
 the genius that produced dreamy landscapes of great 
 beauty and technical skill. Neither his religious nor 
 his artistic life was properly lived, and his ' mission ' 
 dominates even his literary expression. So that he 
 hanos like Mahomet's coffin in a mid-heaven of his 
 ov/n, where, we fear, most readers will require to 
 crane their necks to properly appreciate this mummy 
 of a Modern Prophet. 
 
 W. Anderson Smith. 
 Ledaig, N.B., Jime 1892. 
 
TABLE OF COJfTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Artistic Culture ix Cal^tn^istic Household— A Medieval 
 Student— Opinion of Contemporaries — Professor de Morgan 
 — H. Smith Evans— Sir Algernon BoRTH^^CK— Thomas 
 Shorter— S. C. Hall— The « Shepherd '—A Bible in Canada 
 —Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson— James Smith's Creed, . . 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 His Forbears ' — Story of the ' Duchess Anne ' — Artistic 
 Faculty Hereditary— Prolific Families— Financial Disaster 
 to Father — Training for the Church — Absence of Oratory 
 — Irvingism — A Heroic Mother — Lady Bulwer Lytton — A 
 Pure Household — Impracticable Training — Strathayen — 
 Sketching — Theology — Prophecy — Glasgow University — 
 Black Bull Inn— Scott Russell— Tutor and Probationer- 
 Study AN End— Art versus Theology, 13 
 
 CHAPTER III. 1826-1828. 
 
 Tutor and Probationer— Pollock— James Thomson— Italian 
 — Winter Travelling — Perth ' Howfs ' — Swedenborg — 
 Choked Professions— ' Course of Time '—Hamilton, Perth 
 —Jock Aiton— Few Books— Cook's Geography— Marbles at 
 College— Fishing—College Comrades— Hard Times— Con- 
 servatrt; Instincts — Irving — Millennium — Mental Fer- 
 ment—Prophecy, 24 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 1828. 
 
 Orthodoxy — Irvingism — Threatened Aberration — Joanna 
 Southcottism — England — John Wroe — Controversy — 
 ' Beyond Irving '—Book of Hermes, 38 
 
X TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 1830-1831. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Leavixg Scotland — Southcottism — Ashton-under-Lyne — The 
 Napiers, Letham— ' The Woman '—His Influence— Teaching 
 Hebrew — Uniyersalism — Preaching Paradoxes — Circum- 
 cised—Bearded — Wroe's Departure— Visitations— Life at 
 Ashton, 48 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 Doctrine of the Woman— Joanna Southcott— John Wroe— 
 Smith's ' Mission ' — Unity by the Universal— The ' Body ' 
 IN Edinburgh— Campbellites— Satan Bound— Her Majesty's 
 Coronation, -, . . • .57 
 
 CHAPTER YIL 1830-1833. 
 
 Division in Edinburgh — Questionable Finance — Is it an Im- 
 posture ? — The New Shiloh — Smith is Judas — Meeting 
 at Stockbridge — Napier's Dispensary — Great Excitement — 
 Suspicion op Wroe — Smith leaves Ashton-under-Lyne— 
 Inspired ' Idiots '—Napier's Defection, *67 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 1832-1833. 
 
 Pursuing Art — Selling Drawings — Cholera — Perth Hos- 
 pitality — Exhibiting Pictures — An Art Critic — Money for 
 London— Lessons in Painting— Pleased w^ith London- 
 Chemistry AND Art— Robert Owen— Irving— Labour Notes 
 — Atheism — Eating-Houses — Peter Borthwick — Paintings — 
 Preaching ' Good and Evil '—Irving— Copley Fielding— 
 Robson—Baynes— Purser— Atheists— Theatres — Parcels- 
 Cars and Omnibuses — Mrs. Wheeler — Selling Lectures — 
 Borthwick— Shiloh— Infidelity, 77 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 1834. 
 
 Socialism — Some must Lead — * Pioneer ' — Mr. Morison — 
 Poverty — III Health — Troublesome Brothers — The 
 Unstamped — Owen — The * Crisis '— Lectures — ' Anti- 
 christ ' — Co-operatr^e Trades Union — Friction — St. 
 SiMONisM— Dr. de Prati— The Women of the Future- 
 Impractical Radicals — Owen in Disrepute — Power of 
 Unions— ' Society of Civilisation and Progress,' Paris— 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Breach with Owen— Censured— The ' New Moral World ' 
 — ' The Shepherd ' — Done with Infidelity — Message from 
 THE Lord, 95 
 
 CHAPTER X. 1834. 
 
 Uni\t:rsal Analogy — Spiritual Pantheism — No Pay — Bad 
 Health— Nature is Unity— The Weakest Strongest— A New 
 Church — ■ Taylor — Carlile — Owen — Detrosier — Owen 
 LESS Material — Lecturing — Irving Dead — His Opinion of 
 Smith — Bipolarity — Progressive Keligion — Mind and 
 Matter — On Marriage— Stealing a Fine Art, . . .114 
 
 CHAPTER XL 1835. 
 
 Revelation Progressive— Individual as well as Universal 
 Revelation — Atheism — Trusting in Providence — Greedy 
 Priests— The Sabbath— Hell— London Liberality— Blas- 
 phemy — Passion versus Reason — Knowledge not Truth- 
 Whigs and Tories, 135 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 1836. 
 
 Irritation— A ' Visitation'— Writing for Press— Lecturing— His 
 Hearers— London Press— Provincial Press— Mrs. Wheeler 
 —Mrs. Bulwer Lytton— Sir John Doyle— Dr. Robert Angus 
 Smith— Irvingism— Father Preaching— Another Visitation 
 — R. Angus Smith— Dr. Wiseman— Dr. M'Gill—' London Free 
 Press '—Miss Catherine Walker- Miss Forster— Edinburgh 
 Retrograding — Centre of Dissatisfaction — Selling 'Weekly 
 Herald ' to Cobbett's Sons — Under Providence — What is 
 Knowledge? 146 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 Joseph Hopeless— Micaiah Intolerable— No ' Esquire '—* Shep- 
 herd,' Vol. II.— Pantheism Advancing — Miracles— Nature- 
 Science Delusive— Revelation— ' Legends and Miracles '— 
 He translates ' Zadiq '— ' England at One View '—Wood-En- 
 graving — ' Chronicle ' — Bold Advertising — ' Shepherd ' 
 Subsidised— The < Penny Satirist '—Quite Innocent— The 
 Press Independent— ' P. Satirist' 40,000 a Week— A Moral 
 Object in View— A large Audience— Modern Prophecy, . 157 
 
Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CIIAITKR XIV. 
 
 l'A(.K 
 
 New Pomtk'al System— Owkn and Himself— Univeh.sal Vitaijty 
 
 — IMAOINATION A NeCEHHITY— TlIK FEMALE I'UINCIl'LE— OiNE 
 
 Mastku oh Many— Fhee Tuade Universal oh Impossible — 
 
 A RPEECniKYINO PaHLIAMKNT— JOSKIMI WOLKK, APOSTLE OF 
 
 Jesus Cmuist— Pollock— I uvino—Hoktii wick— * Evanoelical 
 Maoazink ' — His Mokal Would — Land Allotment — Com- 
 munity OF Pkopkiity oiuectionahle— Paradoxes— Not a 
 Visionary— Moral, not Clerical, Government— A Disem- 
 bodied Spirit— No Truth in Profile, 170 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 1838. 
 
 His Lady Supporters — The Cleroy and Education — Their 
 BiooTRY — To THE Continent — Medical Advice in 'Satirist' 
 —Leaders from Continent- R. Angus Smith— The Pub- 
 lisher's Devil— Paris — Rome — Priests— Monks — Fleas- 
 Parisian Cafes— Vetturino— Venice Acquaintances— J. P. 
 Greaves— On Marriage— Teetotal and Vegetarian Friends 
 —The Spirit Again, 190 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Lecturing Again— Heraud-Checking Infidelity— Joseph Smith 
 -Light Reading— Ostracised in Scotland— London too Big 
 for Scandal—' Visitations '—Thomas Smith— Unacknow- 
 ledged Remittances — ' Penny Satirist ' — Universal 
 Church — Mrs. Wheeler— Refined Women — On Marriage — 
 Greaves the Mystic— Owen Estranged -The * Despatch '— 
 
 * PUULICOLA '—Ills P>ROTHER MiCAIAH AT TaNGIERS— CONVERSA- 
 TIONAL Meetings— Not a Chartist— Music— Translating 
 Fourier— III— End of * Phalanx ' — Theory of Light— 
 Doherty's Automaton Vessel — Goes Down — Prophetic 
 Numbers— The Disruption a Catholic Movement, . . 201 
 
 CHAPTER XVn. 1842-1850. 
 
 Mrs. Marshall the Medium— The 'Family Herald '—Type 
 Set by Machinery- Women Compositors— Done with Fou- 
 RiERisM— Daguerrotype — R. Angus Smith— Slow Progress 
 OF ' Herald ' — Quaint Analogies — Passions as Tax- 
 Gatherers — ' Penny Press ' Reputable — Land Allotment — 
 Progress of the ' Herald '—No Real Sympathy with 
 Democracy—' Northern Star ' on his Leaders— More Per- 
 
TAI5LE OF COXTKN'TS. XIU 
 
 I'AOK 
 MANENT AND WIDESPREAD IN * HeRALD ' THAN ELBEWHERE— ThE 
 
 Irish Question— The World in Miniature— An ' Honest 
 Infiokl'— Anhquity ok Discovkrikh— ' Man is a Mink'— 
 ' Herald ' Estarllshkd and Acknowledged— 125,000 a Week, 219 
 
 CHAPTER XVIIr. 
 Cold Lover— Fikrck Wooers— A Skeleton in the Cui'Roard— 
 A Laban with Thrke— Unrkquited Akkection but Atten- 
 tions RKCKIVED— IlKCALL MY LoVE !— ShE V)!ll HAVE ME— TWO 
 
 to One— a Delicate Situation— Yet Anotifer— Why do 
 Old Men, not Young, Admhie Mk?— Seeking a Wife— Cure 
 FOR A Cross Husband— My Husband won't Quarrel— A 
 Mother-in-Law Again— a Jealous Wife— Love without 
 Children— How many Cow-Tails to the Moon — No 
 Stays — Crkmation — Bother Valentines— Temperance — 
 Style— A Romance- Provincial Morality, . . . .241 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 18.50. 
 
 Analogy, or the Universal Scikncr— Shakesi-erian Idolatry 
 — ' The House that Jack Built '— Vegetarianis.m and 
 Homeopathy— T/fK Oreat Exhibition — Newman Impaled — 
 Tmk Deckaskd Wifk's Sister— The Poktry of HistoPvY — 
 MiX'HANics' Institutions— Thk Crimkan War— Reprkkknta- 
 tion of Minoritiks— Want of Rkx'RUITs- Want of 'Atmos- 
 PHKRK ' IN Art— TiiK Potato Disease- Private Charity— 
 Advanck of Women— C Doveton, Woodhousk — J. A. Jack- 
 BON, Edinburgh— George S. Phillips ('January Searlk')— 
 'This RARE Scholar AND Author,' 200 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 18.>3. 
 
 His Mdfjnum OjmH — Absorbed in his ' Mission ' — The Five Acts 
 OF History— The P'ive Capitols — Women and Slave.s— Value 
 of 'i'lieological controversy — nationality is not the 
 British Mission— Orthodoxy Startled— Bipolaritiks of 
 Truth— Mr. Gregg— Thos. J. Lynch— Hugh Dohkrty— 
 • Spiritual Tklkgraph'— Dr. Garth Wilkinson— Prof. A.J. 
 Scott— John A. Hkraud, 281 
 
 CIlAPTEIi XX. 1843. 
 
 Optical Theorirs — IlARMfjNic Sciknce—Doherty— Algebra and 
 Mathkmatics— Dkatii of his J'athkr— P'rknch Grammar- 
 English Grammar— li. Angus Smith— Death of Dr. Jamks 
 
XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 Napier— His Health— His Habits— 'P. Satirist' Fading 
 —Upholstering— The ' London Press '— ' Penny Press '—The 
 Orthodox Hell— The Pictorial Papers— French Art- 
 Hacks-' Daily News ' and Dickens— Deceiving Advertisers 
 — 'People's Journal'— 'Too Low and Radical '—Educa- 
 tional Institute of Scotland — The Chartists — French 
 Revolution— Louis Bl.vnc— ' A Gain to Us '—The ' Court 
 Journal'— His Ashton Training— III— Poetry of Travel- 
 ling Gone — Learning Dancing — The Press Infidel— Hell- 
 fire— Miss LiN^wooD- Importance of Dress— 'The World's 
 Wonder '—Allan Thomas ATTWOOB—Sanctus Wilfridus— 
 Father Ignatius— The Messiah— Manchester Revisited— 
 Popery— Southfleet—Borthwick — Cousin's Ink— Doherty 
 —'Jock Aiton '—Biggs, 300 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 1857. 
 
 Mrs. Wheeler— Advancement of Women— Lady Bulwer Lytton 
 — Her Wrongs — Her Witty Correspondence — Love a Monster 
 —Married Tyranny— 'The Peer's Daughter '—Her Auto- 
 biography—Who Smith Is— Heresy— Friction with Mrs. 
 Wheeler — British Females — Miriam Sedley — Advice — Old 
 Ladies — A Moral Tiger — Newman— The ' Handwriting on 
 the Wall '—Newman ' the Apostate '—On Marriage— Remi- 
 niscences— Scotland — ' MoLiERE,' A Tragedy — Borthwick 
 —From Lady Lytton— Her Charity— Mercy, not Justice— 
 De Prati— Animals in HEA^^:N— ' Jew de Brass '—Borthwick 
 — Dizzy and Scandal — Well Dead— Bear and Avenge 
 NOT Yourself— Death of Borthwick— Spirits— He Loves a 
 Ballet— Spirit-Rapping— Mrs. Hayden— Women and Mar- 
 riage—Wales AND Misfortune— Mr. and Mrs. Norton- 
 Reminiscences of Edinburgh — Horrid Love— Two Hells — 
 Not a Literary Man— Life a Burden— My Dear Wife— More 
 ' Esprit'— Juno— Mothers— A Rolling Stone— Publishing- 
 More Loves ant) Fewer Hatreds— Irish Recklessness— 
 ' Deils and Lassies ' — Bosworth— Awful Fighter— His Own 
 Book— Marital Troubles, 325 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Astrology— Zadkiel (Lieut. Morison)— Spiritualism— Divina- 
 tion— Crystals— "Medical Galvanism— Dr. Zimpel— Hugh 
 Doherty— W. H. Halse— W. Salter Herrick— Marston, 
 Poet — Mrs. Crowe — Mrs. Hervey — Robert Chambers' 
 Daughters— Mrs. de Morgan— Alfred W^m. Hobson— Roger 
 Casement— Dr. Joule— E. V. Rippingill— Borrowing his 
 Brains— A Spiritual Pioneer, . 402 
 
TABLE OF COXTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 Great Spiritual Awakexixg— A Baker Diffusionist— A 
 Brother Maniac— The Garlands— His Lady Friends— Hi.^ 
 Followers— Woman's INIission— William Heal, Socialist— 
 H. Smith Evans— W. Salter Herrick and Smith's Landscapes 
 —Blasted Hopes— Mediums— Mr. Biggs, Publisher, . .417 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Letters on Science — Humorous Treatment — Scientific 
 Sectarianism— Science for the Rich— A ' Moral ' should 
 BE Hidden — ' The Comlng Man ' — The ' Inquirer '— The 
 ' New York Evangelist ' — ' Illustrated London News ' — 
 * Spiritual Magazine ' — Visit to Perth — Death — ' With 
 Hope and without Fear,' 426 
 
SHEPHERD' SMITH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE STORY OF A MIND. 
 
 Our imaginations are necessarily of a very inadequate 
 character, and the visions we call up to ourselves of the 
 conditions under which we lived and struggled, thought and 
 laboured a quarter of a century ago, are by no means facsimiles 
 of the actual state of things. Times have changed, and we 
 have changed with them to a far greater extent than we may 
 be willing to admit, and we can no more read the record of 
 the life that was, than we can enjoy the same poetry or the 
 same puddings. 
 
 This being so, how almost impossible is it to conjure up 
 to oneself the condition of a Scottish household in the first 
 years of the century, with Civilisation, as we understand it 
 to-day, a thing of the distant future. Letters costing Is. 2d. 
 each were serious epistles indeed, and not lightly written ; 
 travelling by mail-coach was slow and cumbersome, expen- 
 sive, and uncomfortable during a great part of the year; 
 newspapers were rare indeed in country districts, and passed 
 from hand to hand with the utmost care ; and public speak- 
 ing had not made any step towards that unusual flow of 
 
 B 
 
2 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 words that threatens to destroy tlie equanimity of tlie multi- 
 tude, and upset the cahnness of judgment of the few. Yet, 
 even in Glasgow in those days, culture in its truest sense 
 was to be found in the simplest dwellings in the Drygate or 
 Garngad Road ; and lads were struggling, with little aid 
 from the paternal purse, to obtain a foothold in that world 
 of science and letters in which they were one day to make 
 themselves an honoured name. "With all appliances and 
 means to boot, our expensive systems of school boards and 
 renovated universities have not done more for our present- 
 day youth than honest ambition, self-restraint, and persistent 
 effort did in the first year's of the century for the humblest 
 of the citizens of Glasgow. 
 
 We find it so difficult to dissociate progress from all those 
 physical advantages we enjoy, that we can scarcely conceive 
 of cultivated people who saw few papers, wrote few letters, 
 and owned few books, who travelled rarely and never to any 
 distance, whose dwellings were circumscribed and furniture 
 simple, and who lived in a provincial town in a transition 
 period. And yet we have before us a copy of Allan Ramsay's 
 Gentle Shepherd, dated 1819, in manuscript, beautifully 
 executed, with charming coloured illustrations, by two lads 
 of eighteen and nineteen, struggling towards culture and 
 mental refinement through every possible physical and intel- 
 lectual disadvantage that could arise from humble circum- 
 stances and stern Puritan surroundings. Both became M. A.'s 
 of Glasgow, and men of wide culture and large intellectual 
 growth ; and the younger of the two is the special subject of 
 our Memoir, one who exercised as wide and as wholesome a 
 literary influence as any man of his time. 
 
 In after years he wrote that his father had ' destroyed the 
 language of the family,' and in this, perhaps, to a certain 
 extent lay the secret of the particular bias that was eventually 
 given to his life and his mind. For although at the instance 
 of their Puritanical father, with his strong religious ten- 
 dencies, most of the family were trained with a view to the 
 
THE STORY OF A MIND. 3 
 
 ministry, yet few of them practised, and none of them were 
 gifted with the power of oratory. They soon felt that the 
 Jangnarje of the family had been spoiled, that, however 
 originally and powerfully they could think, the habit of 
 oral exposition had not been cultivated at a sufficiently early 
 age, and they drifted into channels they never originally 
 dreamed of, and left the church they could not fill with 
 their voices, for the wider audience of the world they could 
 at least reach with their pens. How this came about in the 
 case of our Subject, and in what manner and to what degree 
 his mind was prepared for the part it was to play, and in 
 what fashion this fine mind and gentle spirit found room in 
 the great rift he discovered in the world around him, when 
 he could not elbow a space for himself amid the ordinary 
 throng, we seek to discover mainly from his own writings 
 and correspondence. 
 
 It may seem a piece of afi'ectation to call it Tlie Story of a 
 Mind, as if every man's story was not the same ; but his 
 outward life was in the main so uneventful, and his mental 
 evolution so striking and so remarkable, that, more than falls 
 ordinarily to the lot of even our most intellectual men, the 
 story of his life is The Story of a ]\Iind — a mind of excep- 
 tional spirituality, of great purity and simplicity, of the 
 largest compass, and the finest quality. When we add to 
 this that James Smith from the first endured something of 
 the hardship and displayed much of the devotion of the 
 mediaeval student, that he combined this mediaeval spirit 
 and even mediaeval learning with modern knowledge and 
 the most advanced views, that his purity of mind and in- 
 tensity of enthusiasm were combined with the largest intel- 
 lectual charity and keenest sympathy with the most opposing 
 views, M^e have in this large-minded man as remarkable an 
 intellectual figure as any of recent times, and one well worthy 
 of attention and examination. 
 
 The opinion held regarding him by his more immediate 
 contemporaries has been more than once expressed, so that 
 
4 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 we can judge of his influence upon tliem.^ On a copy of the 
 
 H. Smith Divine Drama, Mr H. Smith Evans, the artist, had written 
 
 Evans. ^^ ^ ^^^.^ learned and accompHshed man ' — ' Think what an 
 
 intellectual and good man should be, and he was that.' 
 
 Sir Algernon gir Algernon Borthwick writes of his father's friend — *Hc 
 
 did great and good work in the Family Herald, and made a 
 
 great impression on his contemporaries by the vigour and 
 
 profundity of his thoughts, as well as by the breadth and 
 
 s. c. Hall, truly Christian generosity of his appreciations.' S. C. Hall 
 
 1886. ^vrites : — * I did not know personally the estimable 
 
 gentleman who was your uncle, and who is entitled to all the 
 esteem, regard, and respect that can be accorded to him. I 
 am but one of very many thousands who honour his name 
 by appreciating the good work he did for God and man.' 
 
 In a notice of him in the Spiritual Magazine of May 
 1874, republishmg some of his leading articles, the author 
 observes : — 
 Thomas ' In reasoning out principles of universal analogy, he was 
 
 perhaps without living equal ; and though he sometimes ran 
 his analogies into what seem extravagant conceits, and fre- 
 quently indulged in paradoxy, he was always instructive, and 
 never dull, even when dealing with questions the most 
 abstruse. He read much, thought much, and was a close 
 observer of men and manners, and showed great shrewdness, 
 humour, and discrimination of character. This is particu- 
 larly seen in The Coming Man, and in his weekly Answers 
 to Correspondents in the Family Herald, so numerous, varied, 
 and unique, that many found it difficult to believe that they 
 could aU be written by him, as was really the case. Like 
 William Cobbett, he had a great antipathy to all narrowness 
 and exclusiveness. His favourite saying was, ''Charity 
 
 1 Professor De Morgan writes to Dr R. Angus Smith : — * A man of so 
 much goodness and so much intellect as your brother is a loss to all 
 who knew him. Nothing passed through his mind without receiving 
 his own peculiar mark, and this in a very unusual degree. He was a 
 real lover of good, and his memory will be held in sincere respect.' 
 
 Shorter. 
 
PECULIAR PHRENOLOGY. 5 
 
 believeth all things ; " and hence, as Emerson would say, he 
 was "liberally hospitable to all manner of ideas," and espe- 
 cially to such as were commonly rejected and despised, 
 accounting it much less discreditable to entertain error un- 
 awares than to treat any sort of truth with scorn and con- 
 tumely. He would discuss questions generally tabooed by 
 writers of conventional respectability, and had many a 
 kindly word to say for new ideas and unfashionable heresies. 
 He believed that every religion, race, sect, and party had its 
 Divine mission, and that there was some element of truth 
 and good in all. Hence he could fraternise with all sorts 
 and conditions of men.' 
 
 In an earlier number of the same magazine : — * In a 
 leading article in one of the early volumes of the Family 
 Herald, the editor says he attended a lecture given by a 
 phrenologist. At its conclusion he went up to speak to the 
 lecturer, who addressed him as the editor of the Family 
 Herald. Being asked how he knew, the phrenologist said 
 he inferred the identity from the peculiar conformation of 
 his head. The photograph which forms the frontispiece to 
 The Coming Man is a visible evidence of the truth of 
 phrenology in its general principles. The high coronal 
 region and the remarkable breadth of forehead indicate a 
 man of reverent mind and of comprehensive intellect. If 
 this book had been published anonymously, no one who has 
 read with interest the leading articles and "Notices to Cor- 
 respondents " of the periodical which the author established, 
 and made so famous, would have failed to discover in the 
 comprehensive charity, the profound wisdom, and ready wit 
 contained in every chapter of Tlie Coming Man the editor of 
 this favourite paper.' 
 
 In a letter of Dr Wm. Howitt in 1872, Dr Wm. Fraser DrWm. 
 Tolmie, of Vancouver's Island, writes : — * In my album, next Toimie, 
 your photograph, is that of J. E. Smith. The latter is, I ^^'^'^°"^''^- 
 believe, that of the Eev. J. E. Smith, A.M., who, from 1834 
 to 1838, with intervals of cessation, published in London, 
 
6 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 for III. or 1 Jd. each, a weekly journal inculcating universal 
 faith, or the broadest and most cheering views of religion, 
 while giving place to letters on mesmerism by De Prati, and 
 himself finding a side of spiritual truth to everything — such 
 as the inspiration of Joanna South cote and others — and nar- 
 rating various curious but well-authenticated occurrences not 
 explainable by known natural laws. He battled stoutly, 
 too, as well with the narrow-mindedness of infidelity as with 
 that of sectarianism. During one of the recesses from pub- 
 lishing the Shepherd — the journal above-named — Smith 
 brought out a small volume, entitled Legends and Miracles. 
 That is, I think, alluded to in your second volume of the 
 History of the Supernatural. 
 
 'As I cannot think that a gentleman of your extensive 
 erudition can have failed to know Smith's magnum opus — the 
 Shepherd — and as I deem it not unlikely that you have even 
 known and liked the man, I make bold to ask you about 
 him, as one for whom I have long entertained deep reverence 
 and much esteem and gratitude, although I have never seen 
 him. 
 
 ' I left Scotland in 1832 as surgeon and clerk for the Hud- 
 son's Bay Company ; returned on a visit in '41-'42, when I 
 got the Sliepherd, but did not begin to read it until in Sep- 
 tember, again on shipboard for this country via Cape Horn. 
 In my long solitude, never having been home since, the 
 
 Shepherd has been a great source of comfort to me ' 
 
 ' The impression made upon his contemporaries has been a 
 Wilkinson, permanent one.^ Dr J. J. Garth Wilkinson, in a careful 
 
 March 1885. 
 
 ^ Here is a letter from the Scotsman of 4tli May 1864 : — 
 
 ' CHRISTIAN INQUIRY.' 
 
 Edinburgh, May 2, 1864. 
 Sir, — In the letter from London on this subject in your paper of 
 April 28, the writer replies to the inquiry of ' One Perplexed,' who 
 had asked, ' Where are the scientific investigators of Christianity 
 whose decision the world is to accept as it does those of eminent dis- 
 coverers in electricity, &c. ? ' by alleging they have not yet made their 
 
 Dr J. J. 
 Garth 
 
A THEOLOGICAL ' TURNER.' 7 
 
 study of his friend, writes : — ' It may have heea about 1846 
 when I was first introduced to the Rev. James Smith by 
 
 appearance,' to which I would add, or if they have, they have not yet 
 received much attention. 
 
 Now, I have known one such scientific investigator, who laid down 
 and applied to theology the principles of universal science, as I believe, 
 for the first time. It is now several years since he began his labours 
 in this domain in a humble way, with great difficulties to contend 
 against and the smallest possible amount of encouragement, conduct- 
 ing a weekly paper in London, named by him the Shepherd, a Journal 
 of Universal Science. And with regard to what ' Waiting for Light ' 
 observes of theology having stood still, or nearly so, since the Refor- 
 mation, I reply, that if ' all theology depends ' — as Coleridge said it 
 does depend — ' on mastering the term nature,' the comparative stagna- 
 tion of theology as a science is at once accounted for. And I remember 
 this remark by the editor of the Shepherd, that but for the brilliant 
 experiments of Faraday — which he had just witnessed, and which 
 could not have been seen before that time — the necessary illustration 
 of the principles laid down in it would not have been possible. If so, 
 there was the right man in the right place at the right time. He had, 
 a short time previously, gone to London from Glasgow, to which he 
 returned to die in 1857, having some time previously published in 
 London his last important work. The Divine Drama of History and 
 Civilisation. And now, I think, I may as well mention an opinion of 
 my own, for which, of course, I alone am responsible : that this 
 author, the Rev. James Smith, M.A,, stands among modern theolo- 
 gians as Turner among modern artists. But, however that may be, 
 this much at least is certain, that he gives theology a neAV turn alto- 
 gether ; for he found, to quote again from the interesting letter in 
 question, that * there was ow genuine faitii in theology,' and I do 
 believe he turned it into ' a theology in which it is possible to have 
 faith.' At least, he brought dogmatic theology to the test of first 
 principles and fearlessly published the conclusions, undeterred by 
 pecuniary loss, and * not to be put down by any cry of heresy or infi- 
 delity.' That this was done in the best possible way I will not assert ; 
 but this I will say, that as the doctrines of the Christian Church are 
 professedly Catholic, surely no man, either priest or layman, can fairly 
 object to have them tried by the principles they profess, that is to say, 
 by Catholic principles, which mean, or of course ought to mean, the 
 first principles of universal truth. And without a correct knowledge 
 of these, the deepest question of our day cannot be solved. 
 
 I i^aay add that some divines of consideration, whom I need not 
 
8 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 Hugh Dolierty at the office of the Phalanx, a journal of 
 which Mr Doherty was editor, and the Rev. James Smith 
 assisted him in the editorship. The journal was intended to 
 represent and propagate the views of Charles Fourier, the 
 French Socialist writer, in the United Kingdom. I well 
 remember some of Mr Smith's leading articles, which were 
 always weighty in their style and often eloquent in expres- 
 sion. They represented, in some way, the widest humani- 
 tarianism. The writer had no special sympathy with Fourier, 
 excepting that both he and Fourier were unsparing critics of 
 Civilisation and all its religiosities, but from totally different 
 points of view. 
 
 ' Fourier aimed to reconstruct society as a deduction from 
 an analysis of the human passions, including the intel- 
 lectual, moral, and religious passions, and to form a world in 
 which all these would be carried out and gratified, and so 
 balance each other, and produce a new peace thereby ; and 
 with these forces working harmoniously in this assured peace 
 would evolve a world of order and prosperity, the like of 
 which has not even been dreamed of by former seers and 
 sages. Smith was a critic, as we have said, but from a creed 
 of his own, which, probably, it was not in his nature or 
 capacity to impart to any other soul. He was a deeply 
 religiose and Biblical man ; the religious life and its questions 
 were cardinal with him. Its passions were the only passions 
 which probably he cared about as forces to be calculated 
 upon for the service of the New Humanity. A profound 
 and trenchant disbelief in evil, as it is commonly understood 
 
 name, seem to get a glimpse of those pairs of principles (for they are 
 not one-sided, but run in pairs), and occasionally to lay hold on them, 
 but they never grasp them firmly or hold them steadily and continu- 
 ously even to the end of a chapter. 
 
 But, of course, it cannot be expected or required of me that I should 
 formally lay down, still less develop and illustrate, such principles in 
 your columns. I can only indicate where they may be found in a 
 scientific shape by such as are ' perplexed ' or anxiously * waiting for 
 light.'— I am, &c., W. B. 
 
DR GARTH WILKINSON ON SMITH. 9 
 
 by the religious world, was, perhaps, the Organon of his 
 reforming thought. As we have said, the form of his dis- 
 belief was, for the most part, unexpressed. It came forth 
 in his conversation in startling paradoxes, in wrestlings with 
 the spheres around him, in epigrammatic blows right and 
 left, which were often unanswerable, because the hearers did 
 not know where they came from or whither they tended. 
 He talked out of some great mystery, in the centre of which 
 he lived and breathed and had his being. He was most 
 oracular, and most unsatisfactory to all formalism; and, 
 speaking from the unknown, there was a charm about him 
 such as attends upon supernatural performers. His great 
 book, The Divine Drcana, on the past and the future of 
 human history, appeared to give some precision to his views, 
 but it, too, came from the unknown being of himself, and 
 has left behind it no palpable forecast, either in a new Jeru- 
 salem, an ultimate science, or even a final restoration of all 
 things. He had a conviction that nobody understood him, 
 and this caused him to speak to no conceived audience, and 
 deprived his writings of the force of an end for which they 
 were written. 
 
 ' I knew him well in the interest which he took for a time 
 in Spiritualism. Its indefinite field lent itself to his mysti- 
 cism. In the Spiritual Herald there are some of his writ- 
 ings, and notes and criticisms. They are full of force, 
 written as with a pen of iron upon rock. As a destroyer of 
 Sadducee and Pharisee, there was something Titanic in his 
 might. He had a round, piercing grey eye, both in his 
 head and in his style, — such an eye as would suit a car- 
 penter, a vivisecting physiologist, or a bombardier. Most 
 undefined to others in his essential beliefs, his strokes down- 
 wards and outwards upon his literary adversaries were as 
 exact as the best gunnery could wish. I imagine that if 
 any one were to cull from his "Answers to Correspondents " 
 in the Family Herald, of which he was long editor, he could 
 amass a number of terrible repartees and rebukes. 
 
10 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 ' So much for my small insight into a most remarkable 
 ancient mind. As to the man's personal nature, putting 
 aside his deep inscrutable parts, it is probable that a more 
 genuine and kindly soul is not to be met with. To women 
 and children he was, I fancy, tender and companionable. 
 Being of wide learning and information, he was eminently 
 sociable whenever no intellectual element for contest shut 
 him in, and required storming to let him out. He enjoyed 
 parties and spheres by which he could escape from his 
 sterner self, and find a surface on which he could live, and 
 where he could commune without dispute. 
 
 *It is no exaggeration to say that he was terrible and 
 lovable. Had his inner soul-dogma been more cognisable 
 and definable — could it have come into systematic speech — 
 he might have been an influence in the theosophic world, 
 though not in the theologic. As it is, he stands by himself 
 in his spiritual veil here : a modern Isis, representing good 
 and evil without their boundaries.' 
 
 That this 'most remarkable ancient mind,' towards whom 
 many minds have looked with reverence, and others with 
 keen curiosity, since his very early years, was not such a 
 hopeless mystery to himself, and had formulated in his own 
 mind, if not a creed, at least a system of the universe, the 
 following statement from his own pen will show, and partly 
 help to define this great individuality to the present-day 
 reader : — 
 
 ' The fracas at your house arose entirely out of Gilbert's 
 high and holy mission, which I regard as a divine joke. I 
 was not angry with anybody, nor any spirit. I cannot be 
 long angry, for I am a Pantheist — a thorough out-and-out 
 in-and-in Scriptural Pantheist. I believe that God deceives 
 men, bhnds their eyes, hardens their hearts, and stops their 
 ears, and opens and softens them, just as he deems expe- 
 dient. I believe that Satan is God polarised, that all visita- 
 tions of the spirit are Satanic in various degrees ; that the 
 serpent that deceived Eve was God in his opposite polarity 
 
HIS PARADOXICAL CREED. 11 
 
 of liberty; that Gentilism is the same in opposition to 
 Jewism ; and that spiritual visitations are the same in oppo- 
 sition to a divine unitary dispensation. Hence, on principle, 
 I cannot be angry. Sudden impulse often makes me angry; 
 but, on reflection, I cease to be so. Satan I respect as the 
 ■wisdom of God in a mystery — the serpent wisdom. I 
 believe in all religion as divine, but not alike elevated, even 
 as I believe in all animals as divine — man being alone 
 specially exalted. There is only one special, as there is one 
 Lord and one Christ. 
 
 ' Hence I believe in all that you and Gilbert said to me and 
 of me by revelation in some way or other, either figuratively, 
 analogically, symbolically, or in some way or other ; and all 
 that I said in opposition was true in some shnilar way, not 
 at all difficult to express. 
 
 ' I trouble you with this description of myself not for the 
 purpose of argument, but because you do not appear to 
 know what my faith is, nor to understand wdiat I meant 
 when I called the spirit of Luther a devil. I meant no 
 offence to the spirit. It is one of my modes of trying a 
 spirit. I am not afraid to call any spirit a devil when it 
 opposes me, not thereby meaning that I am better than the 
 spirit that is opposed {i.e. a Satan) to me, and is my accusing 
 spirit. That is my meaning, and has been so for twenty- 
 eight years, and therefore my inward nature was only super- 
 ficially read by Luther,^ and what was said was not true 
 except in a very outward sense. To me there can be no 
 mistake about it ; it is to me as positive a revelation as it can 
 be to you — more so, for in me alone is the test to be found.' 
 This large, open, paradoxical mind thus accepted all 
 ignorance as well as all learning as aids to the compre- 
 hension of the world, the spiritual and material world, in 
 which he found himself. His struggle to evolve law and 
 order out of this chaos of sense and nonsense, fact and fic- 
 tion, good and evil, spirit and matter, is told in his manifold 
 
 ^ The so-called spirit of Luther at a seance. 
 
12 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 writings, and helps to explain the solid judgment, and 
 shrewd insight into human affairs, that characterised this 
 most spiritual mind, and enabled him to give to the world 
 the shrewd humour and worldly wisdom of the * Answers to 
 Correspondents,' while living continually in an atmosphere 
 of spiritual imaginings. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 JAMES smith's 'forbears.' 
 
 * John, lawful son to John Smith, weaver ^ in Strathaven, 
 born the 26th day of August 1765 ; and Janet, daughter to 
 James Thomson, portioner^ in Burnbrae, born the 17th and 
 baptised the 30th day of December 1776,' as extracted from 
 the Register of the parish of Avondale, were the parents 
 of James. His grandmother on the Smith side was one 
 Margaret Steuart, from whom he may have inherited his 
 quick and highly imaginative Celtic temperament; while 
 his grandmother on the mother's side was Janet Leiper. 
 Through this Leiper or ISTaper or Napier, as the name is 
 indifferently spelled in old records, the family claimed rela- 
 tionship with the JSTapiers, then of Kype and now of Letham, 
 into whose family his elder brother afterwards married. 
 But the families on all sides were very voluminous. On 
 the death of Janet Leiper, James Thomson married a 
 second time one Janet Findlay, a large family resulting; 
 while the other grandfather was also twice married, first 
 to one Bannerman. This grandfather had a mill on 
 the Avon, and a comfortable house, both of which figure 
 in James' earlier sketches ; but so far as we can dis- 
 cover, the grandfather, no more than the father, was gifted 
 with business qualities, and could not have left much 
 worldly gear to his numerous descendants. All, however, 
 were apparently connected with Avondale, and must have 
 been so for a lengthened period. To the last the memories 
 of the family turned towards Strathaven, around which and 
 
 ^ He would now be termed a manufacturer. 
 2 A joint-heir of house property. 
 
14 SPEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 its old castle their most romantic associations were entwined. 
 A story is told of one of their ancestors who held a farm 
 under the Duke of Hamilton, and whose progenitors had 
 done so for such a lengthened period, that the feeling towards 
 His Grace was that of a clansman to his chief. The ducal 
 family, in one of their spells of enforced retrenchment, 
 had returned from abroad, and the Duchess Anne, with her 
 family, took up her residence in Strathaven Castle. Thence 
 the servants took the children daily walks about the country, 
 and frequently called at this farmhouse, where the fresh air 
 and sharp walk gave them all healthy appetites. At this 
 time they had introduced the French style of dress, low 
 bodies and short sleeves, and this half-clad appearance, 
 coupled with the ravenous appetites, and the whispered 
 unsatisfactory state of their finances, satisfied the good folk 
 that their proprietor was indeed poor, and even wanting the 
 necessaries of life. When the rent day came round, the 
 goodman received explicit directions to keep his eyes about 
 him, and to be sure to let his goodwife know if there were 
 any signs of poverty in the castle. To his sorrow he found 
 the Duchess Anne as half clad as her family, and returned 
 with such a doleful account of the state of matters, that he 
 was thereupon despatched back again with a web of home- 
 spun, as the most useful present from a sympathising friend ! 
 One of the Thomsons displayed such a remarkable talent 
 for art, that he was despatched to Italy by his friends, there 
 to receive a thorough training. Upon his return he practised 
 mainly portrait painting, and this with remarkable success 
 and unquestionable skill, until his mind seems ultimately to 
 have given way. Striking examples of his skill and talent 
 are to be seen in the portraits of my granduncle, Captain 
 Knox, and my grandmother, Mrs Napier, now in Letham 
 House; but, owing to the carelessness of his friends, the 
 bulk of his finest efforts were destroyed. My father dis- 
 covered upwards of seventy canvasses hopelessly stuck 
 together and ruined with damp in the house of the artist's 
 
THE PULPIT MANIA. 15 
 
 brother, a writer in Stratliaven ; and unless a number are 
 preserved in Hamilton Palace, as has been stated, this fine 
 artist is but poorly represented at the present day. A taste 
 for art, however, was a marked characteristic of the family, 
 and, as we shall see, had a strong influence upon James' life. 
 These being his immediate ancestors, James Smith was the 
 third child and second son of John Smith and Janet Thom- 
 son, and ^vas born Sabbath evening, 22nd November 1801, 
 at No. 17 Drygate, Glasgow. Such is the entry in the 
 family Bible, where subsequent entries are very numerous. 
 What with this rapidly increasing family and misfortune in 
 business, the prospects of the young lads could not have 
 been bright. The father ascribed his misfortune to the 
 malversation of an employee, and followed him to America 
 at one time ; but certain it is he never recovered his position, 
 and latterly relied mainly upon the assistance of his sons. 
 
 Much has been said in a critical spirit of his father by 
 James, who seems to have felt more keenly than the others 
 the antagonistic elements of his old Puritanic temper of 
 mind ; but if he had not much of the world's gear to give 
 them, and if he preserved a sternness of rule that was 
 almost tyrannical, 'spoiling the language of the family,' 
 yet he inculcated principles of stern integrity, stimulated 
 the ambition and aided the studies of his sons so far as lay 
 in his powder, and was unquestionably a somewhat harsh, 
 but altogether wholesome, influence in the simple Scottish 
 household. The blunder of his life was in his earnest desire 
 and endeavour to push all his children into the pulpit ; while 
 the severity of a Scottish household of those days prevented 
 that unfettered interchange of conversation amongst the 
 young, in which the faculty of oral exposition is created. It 
 seems reasonable to give him full credit for this desire. He 
 saw the dangers of a business life, without capital or special 
 business aptitude, and with his deeply earnest religious mind 
 he naturally turned to the church as the proper outlet for 
 young men, all of whom early developed the faculty of acquir- 
 
16 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 ing the knowledge of the schools with facility. But he 
 did not cultivate their language, and he could not control 
 the bias of the great-brained boys, who could never get 
 bonnets to go on their enormous heads. None of them ever 
 could speak even fairly well, and most of them refused to 
 think like their neighbours ! Thinking machines without 
 expression, and clerical candidates wdio would j^ersist in 
 criticising the church articles — how could room be found for 
 them in the fold ? 
 
 Room could not be found for them. Their earnestness 
 and sincerity, their great learning, their philosophic insight, 
 were not wanted except when on the rails, and on the ortho- 
 dox rails they could not keep. As teachers, as tmorthodox 
 clergymen, and as litterateurs, they fretted out their day 
 upon the stage, unable to secure for the most part that place 
 among their fellows that their intellectual powers told them 
 ought to be theirs. 
 
 The father himself ultimately w^as carried over into the 
 camp of Edward Irving, into which several of his family 
 followed and preceded him. In this section of the Episcopal 
 Church he latterly held the position of a lay preacher, and 
 was said to have spoken with much acceptance, as was to be 
 anticipated from the deeply earnest nature of the man. But 
 he was comparatively uneducated, although w^ell read, and 
 subjected himself to the critical assaults of his sons, whose 
 education he had stimulated to the utmost. His portrait is 
 that of a man of incisive mind, but of narrow sympathies — 
 quite a typical puritanical face — and he does not seem to 
 have gained the affection, although he secured the respect, of 
 his large and active-minded family. That he was a man of 
 great mental and physical activity, although unable to pro- 
 duce important tangible results therefrom, has been clearly 
 proved to us. His friends dreaded his evening calls, as he 
 kept walking round the room, in the excitement of the 
 intellectual combats so common in Scotland in those days, to 
 the ruin of the treasured carpets of the good ladies of the 
 
JAMES smith's parents. 17 
 
 household ! He transmitted to his family his remarkable 
 peregrinating'powers, being himself able to walk thirty miles at 
 a stretch when he was upwards of 70. He died at the 
 goodly age of 78 ; and just before his death sent St Paul's 
 blessing to his son James, towards whom at the end he 
 turned in spirit. But if from the father the family received 
 little but Celtic fervour, and great — if ill-regulated — energy, 
 from the mother they obtained all the finer regulating 
 influences of their lives, and to her they looked with a depth 
 of affectionate veneration, which the beautifully calm Saxon 
 face of the wise and patient woman amply justified. Gentle 
 and brave, she endured all the trials of fortune with sublime 
 equanimity, conducted her Christian household with skilful 
 and intelligent thrift, and ever breathed an atmosphere of 
 love and self-sacrifice, all the more striking because it was 
 apparently unconscious. * Ah ! my mother was the hero of 
 the family' exclaimed Dr Robert Angus Smith, F.R.S., 
 who, like his brother James, inherited much of the beautiful 
 spirit of the mother, along with the father's energy more 
 wisely directed. Janet Thomson, as we recollect her in her 
 widowed age, had the charm of calm content in her large, 
 soft Scotch face, — the content that comes from a mind 
 and body incapable of the pettiness of fretting, that has 
 lived a life of duty and devotion, imsinful, because unselfish. 
 She appears before us now, as she long appeared, an imper- 
 sonation of beautiful old age ; with a rich tint still upon her 
 soft cheeks, her well-doing hands clad in the long black 
 mittens of the period. "When we learned shortly after that 
 her gentle spirit had passed away during sleep, without pain, 
 at the age of 75, we thought it the most natural ending in 
 the world. 
 
 In a letter to Lady Lytton, of date 25th November 1853, 
 James writes : — 
 
 " When I last wrote I had a mother ; now I have none ; 
 I am an orphan. I thought my days of tear-shedding were 
 over, and that I could meet sorrow with a dry eye. But the 
 
 C 
 
18 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 tears are ever standing when I think of my lost friend. 
 She was a good creature, gentle, kind and calm in reasoning 
 or expostulating ; and though she had many trials, she had 
 many comiDensations, in a long and peaceful life. She died 
 as she lived, without a murmur, and without a sigh, and 
 without pain. Her last effort was to read a letter from me, 
 in which I spoke of death, and the happiness of going where 
 so many of our old friends and acquaintances have preceded 
 us, and of the certainty of bettering our condition by death, 
 especially after having spent a moral, a religious, and an 
 affectionate life. It pleases me to think that she talked 
 freely of death, and had no fear of it. It is the reward of a 
 well-spent life to die thus.' 'She died as she lived, an 
 uncomplaining spirit,' he writes again to his elder brother. 
 But in this the children did not take entirely after the 
 mother; in most the restless, fretful temper of the father 
 cropped out, not in kicking violently against the pricks, but 
 in chafing in a harness that would not fit, and champing the 
 bit that a commonplace world had insisted upon putting in 
 their unwilling mouths. 
 
 That their home was one of moral and intellectual refine- 
 ment, in spite of its comparative poverty, is abundantly 
 apparent. The resources of the Glasgow University Library 
 were at the disposal of the students, and they took ample 
 advantage of them. The two eldest were boys of eleven or 
 twelve when they first joined the University ; and while 
 using their utmost endeavours to store their minds and 
 acquire the necessary knowledge for their degrees, they 
 completely cultivated that skill of hand and eye that both 
 exhibited in different directions as they grew up. The 
 severity of training and discipline to which James so 
 frequently alludes did not include the tabooing of Art, to 
 which throughout life he remained devotedly attached, at 
 one time to the danger of his other love — letters. The 
 necessity for severe application soon made close attention to 
 study a second nature with the boys ; and James, however 
 
CALVINISTIC TRAINING. 19 
 
 unwillingly, acknowledges the advantages of the home 
 atmosphere, that must yet otherwise have cramped his 
 aesthetic development. 
 
 * I know many pure-minded men who never gave utter- 27th Sept. 
 ance to an impure thought. I was reared amongst such men LadyLjtton 
 under very severe discipline. But then the purity was 
 produced by bigotry, which was a great evil, a tyranny, but 
 a moral tyranny. Though I have lost my bigotry, and in 
 fact always protested against its excess, I have a respect for 
 its moral influence. I suppose I never once in my whole 
 life gave utterance to a profane oath, and my speech has 
 always been free from obscenity, immodesty, or indelicacy — 
 scrupulously free, so that I even hate it.' 
 
 The mode of conducting the home remained the same, 
 and when his youngest brother Joseph afterwards visited 
 him in London — where he had gone to teach — the usual 
 refuge of impecunious students — James rebelled against the 
 training in his brother's case, that so incapacitated him from 
 moving in the work-a-day world. 
 
 ' Joseph has been about a fortnight with us. I sent him 
 to St Thomas' Hospital. Mr Adams, whom he saw, said it 
 was not a thing of any consequence if he took care of it. 
 He also gave him an order for some medicine, but the 
 obstinate creature would not take it. He went there, he 
 said, just to please me, and did not want the medicine. 
 An ominous beginning ! Mic. had been persuading him not 
 to go to the Hospital.^ To see such ignorance in the heart 
 of London is melancholy, and in teachers of youth, too ! It 
 was a stupid thing sending such a boy as Joseph for such a 
 purpose. The boy has been shamed home. He is uncom- 
 monly ignorant of all the common realities of life. The very 
 children must have laughed at him. I wanted to take him 
 to the theatre, but he objected. Mic. had been persuading 
 him against it. He told Garland he never read a play nor a 
 novel in his life ; and I question if he has even read a history 
 * A brother, and clergyman of tlie Irvingite communion. 
 
20 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 or a newspaper. It is needless to come to England with 
 such an education. This comes of strict religious notions ! 
 The bo}" should be roused up by some active employment 
 immediately, or he will soon be spoiled — an emi)loyment 
 that will cause him to speak a little, for he is as mute as 
 a dumbie before strangers.' 
 
 Here we find a recapitulation of his own experience to 
 some extent ; and while seeking to give the lad, \vho was 
 twenty years his junior, some insight into the great world of 
 London, he ran counter in some respects to his own inner 
 feelings, for he seems never to have quite escaped the deepest 
 feeling that actors were an inferior race, and ' the play,' 
 as ordinarily exhibited, was a comparatively degrading ex- 
 hibition. Indeed, the next generation in provincial Scot- 
 land was really brought up, in so-called religious house- 
 holds, with similar sentiments ; and we ourselves reached 
 manhood ere we could enter a theatre without a sense 
 of wrong-doing of an undefined but sufficiently distinct 
 character. 
 
 The boyhood of the lads was occasionally varied by visits 
 paid to their relatives at Strathaven during the holidays, 
 visits that Avere in nowise serious undertakings to young 
 men who inherited pedestrian powers of no mean order. 
 The only records of this time left us are the eff'orts made to 
 carry off the scenery James loved, in permanent colours, to 
 his Glasgow home. These eff'orts show that he went direct 
 to nature for his inspiration, and account for the freedom 
 and absolute want of the mannerism of the time that early 
 characterised his clever sketches. While his home influ- 
 ence was forcing his mind along the path of theology, his 
 instincts were developing along a purely literary and artistic 
 path ; and these two paths, the one somewhat forced, the 
 other natural, were ultimately to combine in as strange a 
 mental phenomenon as it is well possible to conceive. Men 
 of ordinary minds and ordinary tendencies were always 
 aggravated at the mingled judgment and mysticism, worldly 
 
THEOLOGY RAMPANT. 21 
 
 sagacity and childish simplicity, that arose from this attempt 
 to force a powerful intellect into a special groove. 
 
 The tendency of the time in Scotland was such as it is 
 difficult to conceive in this comparatively materialistic age. 
 Eeligious questions were still discussed with an acrimony and 
 keenness of which we have little experience. The letter of the 
 Bible was still a point to be fought for, and a new translation 
 a positive sacrilege. A ferment that culminated in many 
 great religious movements stimulated all men of serious 
 minds to the most subtle theological disputations. Prophecy 
 was a fertile source of argument, and the ' number of the 
 Beast ' divided with the ' year of the millennium,' the labours 
 of skilful mathematical intelligencies. In these labours, 
 James Smith plunged with all the perfervid energy of his 
 race, and his particular branch of it. An able mathematician, 
 he, along with his close friend, afterwards Dr James Napier, 
 Letham, my mother's brother, filled MS. volumes with 
 abstruse calculations on these questions, at that time looked 
 upon as of vital religious importance. The coterie of Smiths 
 and Napiers at Glasgow College, gathered around them 
 youth of like mind with themselves ; and the Misses Napier, 
 who came down to Glasgow to learn cookery at the ' Black 
 Bull Inn,' as was then the fashion of the time, met their 
 brother's fellow-students in their company. Amongst these 
 the figure of the late Scott Russell, of ' Great Eastern ' fame, 
 stands out pre-eminent. He came in to solve all mathe- 
 matical difficulties by means of his remarkable mathematical 
 capacity, accompanied however by untidy habits of person, 
 which sorely tried the patience of the young ladies. 
 
 James retained to the last his love for mathematical 
 calculations ; and in his astrological and prophetic vagaries, 
 figures were to him indued with a vitality and individuality 
 that made even such ordinarily-passive instruments dangerous 
 in the grasp of his powerful imagination. His erudition 
 was early remarked upon by his companions, who looked 
 upon James, long ere he left Scotland, as * a dungeon of 
 
22: SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 learning.' His power of acquiring knowledge must have 
 been remarkable indeed ; as, notwithstanding the difficulties 
 inseparable from his career as a student, obliged to be self- 
 supporting to an extent, his diploma from the University of 
 Glasgow is dated 1818, when he was but seventeen years of 
 age. For a year previous to this, our father, James' senior 
 by a year, had become the main support of the family as a 
 teacher, and it was while a master in the Lauriston Academy 
 that he worked out his college classes and completed his 
 degree. So soon as James completed his curriculum he too 
 became a tutor, when he was not employed as a ' proba- 
 tioner,' the name given in Scotland to unplaced divinity 
 students who are licensed to preach. 
 
 His life at this time, like that of most of his brothers, 
 must have been one of persistent self-education, as well as 
 study towards his college degree. At eighteen, he painted 
 with great skill and much originality, while his application 
 to Hebrew enabled him subsequently to earn his livelihood 
 as a Hebrew teacher, during his strange career at Ashton- 
 under-Lyne. But, throughout the lives of himself and 
 brothers, they were pure students to the end. Study was to 
 them an end more than a means. It was not the instrument 
 by which they were to earn a livelihood, but to a large 
 extent the be-all and end-all of their existence. A living of 
 a kind was necessary in the strange and absurd constitution 
 of this world here below, but knowledge was not for to-day, 
 it was for ever, and the only terrible reality was t7'uth ! 
 
 Thus antagonistic to a world that demands attention, and 
 declines to be spurned on our way to a better, no wonder that 
 James found himself constantly at loggerheads with all ordi- 
 nary worldly surroundings ; and that although he was enabled 
 from time to time to give liberally to his relatives out of his 
 small earnings, he was content to live to the end of his 
 laborious career as a being ' providentially provided for.' 
 
 Yet there must have been many a great struggle between 
 the two sides of his being ere he came to accept this posi- 
 
A DISTINGUISHED STUDENT. 23 
 
 tion with fatalistic serenity. His artistic nature loved the 
 beautiful as well as the good, and his large heart sought for 
 sympathy and afifection. How he ultimately decided to 
 receive these, and how he became the great and honourable 
 confidant of the ' British female ' hankering after a fuller life, 
 and struggling in the bonds of a great world that was too 
 much for her, his letters and theirs tell for themselves. 
 He entered Glasgow University a lad of eleven, he left it 
 with honour and distinction a youth of seventeen. His 
 acquirements and powers entitled his friends to look to him 
 for great things in the profession he had chosen, but they 
 were soon dismally disappointed. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 TUTOR AND 'PROBATIONER.' 
 
 A TROOP of boys, all educated, or in course of education, for 
 the ministry, refusing to run in the confined harness at that 
 time provided for Scottish Churchmen, and without any 
 special gift of public oral exposition — what was to be done 
 with them 1 
 
 Had they been weaker men, or more commonplace minds, 
 the answer would have been easier. But, aware of their 
 intellectual power, as all men of capacity are, and strongly 
 fixed in their opinions, it soon became apparent that the 
 question was not what was to be done for or with them, but 
 what were they to do with themselves ? 
 
 The first haven they were forced into by stress of weather 
 was, of course, teaching, and as masters or tutors the lads 
 went forth hither and thither over the country. It seems 
 impossible to follow James' course at this time^ although he 
 must have had a wide experience as a tutor and * probationer.' 
 At the end of 1826 we find him in Edinburgh teaching the 
 family of a Mr Hagart, but not living in the house with his 
 pupils. "With this family he remained till 1829, indeed 
 until he left Scotland, and with the members of the family 
 he carried on a voluminous correspondence almost to the 
 end. Previously he had been at Car fin, to which he fre- 
 quently refers. 
 
 'I was down at Leith the other day calling at Mr 
 Dunlop's ; they were all very kind, and expressing their 
 high satisfaction with the way in which I brought George 
 
THE 'COURSE OF TIME.' 25 
 
 forward ; he had been telling them only a few days before 
 I called that he had been more indebted to me than (to) any 
 of his teachers for his knowledge of Latin.' 
 . We do not hear much about his preaching or sermon 
 writing, but occasionally a short notice refers to it incident- 
 ally. ' I preached at Dunfermline Sunday eight days ; it is 
 a splendid church, but excessively difficult to speak in ; the 
 voice is quite lost in the " vast void." Campbell is doing 
 well; I was agreeably surprised at the progress of some 
 of his pupils, and the patrons are all on the best terms with 
 him.' 
 
 •Pollock is there just now preparing his work for the 
 press. By this time I believe the manuscript copy will be 
 in the hands of Mr Blackwood, the printer; it is to be 
 called The Course of Time. Without either preface or 
 
 notes will it come forth into public being I live 
 
 here almost as retired as in Carfin. Kobody has interrupted 
 my solitude yet but Uncle James from Straven, who was Js. Tiiomson, 
 here upon Friday and Monday last, to be made a notary- 
 public, which he now is. It cost him £38.' This is the 
 James Thomson who continued to take a friendly interest in 
 him thereafter. 
 
 * I was employed for two days after I came to town seek- 
 ing out lodgings for myself. But after I had fixed upon a 
 small apartment, which was to cost me 7s. per week, includ- 
 ing fire, I called upon Mr Boyd, at Heriot's Hospital, who 
 strongly recommended me to board with an acquaintance of 
 his, ^Ir Grieve, who is clerk to the Hospital, and with whom 
 I could get an elegant bedroom and the use of a parlour, 
 good board, and good company, for £20 for six months. I 
 rather disliked this proposal at first, as being expensive 
 and disagreeable ; but when I began to calculate fairly, I 
 changed my mind and agreed. I have many advantages in 
 Mr Grieve's. They burn the coals of the Hospital, and in 
 that case there is no economising ; we have the most blazing 
 ingles from 8 in the morning till 11 at night; they have 
 
26 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 their candle free too, so that we have abundance of light 
 and heat. The house is in a very genteel and central situa- 
 tion in the new buildings, North Bridge, and is so well 
 furnished that my acquaintances have all been astonished at 
 my elegant and extravagant apartments. I never was so 
 comfortably situated anywhere.' The cost of rooms or board 
 has not much changed since the period he mentions, sixty 
 years ago. Again he writes : — ' I am very throng writing 
 sermons and reading Italian. I am reading Dante's Inferno. 
 He has got most singular notions of hell and its punishments 
 — quite terrific — more appalling even than fire itself, taken 
 in its literal meaning.' 
 
 It was thus clear that he was working in no narrow groove 
 of Scottish ecclesiasticism, but going afield for his infor- 
 mation, and adding to his linguistic acquirements. Even at 
 this time he has really developed the peculiar semi-sarcastic 
 and yet by no means unkindly humour that afterwards more 
 especially distinguished him. ' I have no intention at pre- 
 sent of moving from my present quarters at Christmas, and 
 do not relish much the idea of travelling at this unpleasant 
 season merely for pleasure, for all the consolation I would 
 be likely to reap from it would be a few pining reflections 
 by the way on the pleasure of being at home, and a greater 
 relish for my own little bedroom when I came back. A very 
 unpleasant feeling it must be on the top of a coach in this 
 weather; and what is most ridiculous, you must pay for 
 suffering it, not unlike the headache of a drunkard in a 
 morning, which of itself is unpleasant enough, but doubly 
 so from the mortifying consideration that it cost him two 
 or three shillings to obtain it. From such moralising as 
 this I have come to the resolution of remaining at home ; so 
 that if all be well, you may confidently hope to see me in 
 Edinburgh, unless you be withheld from making the journey 
 by the same arguments which operate on me. If I come at 
 all to see you in Perth, it must be in May, when gloomy 
 winter has retreated to the poles, her own dreary and deso- 
 
LIFE IN PERTH. 27 
 
 late dwelling, when the leaves shall again be peeping forth 
 from the buds into which they had retreated from fear of 
 her fury ; then I daresay one may venture north without 
 much regret. But now, during the reign of the gowl Decem- 
 ber, the king of the north pole, as I may call him, if I 
 were disposed to travel at all, it would be south to get out 
 of his reach ; for which reason I firmly hope that all I have 
 said about my motives for remaining at home will have no 
 effect upon you, as your motion hitherward will be almost 
 directly south.' 
 
 * You will no doubt all be busily engaged on the compo- 24th Jan. 
 sition of this wonderful geographical work which is to 
 astonish the country with cheapness at least, if not with 
 any other good quality. But cheapness in a season of adver- 
 sity like this is certainly one of the best qualities that a 
 new publication can have, and sufficiently able to hide as 
 great a number of faults as charity itself. I am rather 
 astonished, however, that you have made no communication 
 to me upon the subject, as I was duly elected one of the 
 copartnership in your little subterranean eating-house, where 
 I got the pork and the toddy without paying for them, as 
 the Christian Philosopher himself can testify. The Chris- 
 tian Philosopher's friend, Mr Macarrow, who honoured us 
 with his company at Lennie's that night, is quite an apostle 
 now, according to Mr Grieve. He moves about from place 
 to place and from shore to shore, for he crosses the water 
 even to Fife to Swedenborghise the world ; speaks with the 
 utmost warmth upon the subject of the new church doctrines, 
 and clearly demonstrates with the loudest eloquence their 
 sublime and supernatural efficiency toward the purification 
 of the heart and the reformation of the life.' We have here 
 an account of his introduction to two very different sides of 
 life. The 'subterranean' eating-house, or more correctly 
 drinking-house, was a remarkable institution in Perth for 
 many a day. There several generations met to discuss the 
 affairs of the world, the church, and the Fair City, over 
 
28 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 potations that only iron constitutions and remarkably strong 
 heads could stand for any length of time. Fourteen tumbler 
 men were the rule and not the exception, and the youth soon 
 learned to imitate the ways of the elders, to an extent that 
 seriously influenced the future of a large proportion of the 
 young men, with otherwise quite an exceptional capacity for 
 doing the world's work. The introduction to it had, however, 
 as little influence upon James Smith as had apparently the 
 Swedenborghian doctrines to which, with all his spiritualistic 
 tendencies, he does not seem ever to have leaned. He 
 classed it with the ' other religions,' in all of which he 
 acknowledged a certain amount of inspiration and divine 
 truth. 
 
 It is interesting to note the same grievances as to bad 
 times, and choking up of the professions then as now. After 
 describing some of his friends, who are about to take medical 
 diplomas, each * to pilgrimage through the country in search 
 of patients, praying no doubt for the increase of human 
 sufi'erings, that he may the more easily and abundantly 
 procure for himself his daily bread,' he proceeds — *I 
 doubt that the young surgeons have as doleful a prospect 
 before them as the clergy. They are much more numerous 
 in proportion to the number of their patients, for though not 
 one out of ten may require the advice or consolation of a 
 surgeon or physician, all the population are under the instruc- 
 tion of the clergy, who notwithstanding are much fewer in 
 number. 
 
 * Pollock has got his poem published at last, but as it is 
 only over twelve days old it has not yet been noticed in any 
 of the periodical publications. He made me a present 
 of a copy, but I cannot favour you with a reading 
 for some time, as I have lent it to Mr Dunlop's family, and 
 have also promised it to some others. It is a very beautiful 
 piece of composition, very much resembling Blair's Grave in 
 the style and manner.' His intimacy with Pollock was very 
 close, and he left a very fine and spirited charcoal portrait of 
 
A POOR 'PROBATIONER.' 29 
 
 the young poet, taken evidently about this time. Unfortu- 
 nately it has got much rubbed and mutilated through want 
 of care and perhaps want of interest, for the development of 
 James' mind soon caused him to view The Course of Time 
 with very different feelings, as the lines he wrote at the 
 end of the above copy fully testify. He paid a visit at j^^h May 
 this time unexpectedly to Perth during the absence of his 
 brother, but having been kindly entreated by a colleague, 
 remained a few days. He writes returning some articles he 
 had borrowed, and continues — ' I have also sent a copy of 
 Boyd's specimens of his pupils' poetry to Mr Hamilton. He 
 has written the gentleman's name upon it, and esquired him, 
 contrary to my request. Boyd was positive, saying it was 
 proper, but I do not think that Hamilton will like the desig- 
 nation very well, for, if I may guess from his nice religious 
 scruples, he is a most uncorrupted and uncorruptible descen- 
 dant, or rather remnant, of the old covenanters.' Mr 
 Hamilton was English master in the Perth Academy, and as 
 a rule would now-a-days be addressed as esquire, in spite of 
 the absurdity of the application to a learned but not a 
 knightly profession ! ' I preached for Jock Alton at 
 Dolphington last Sunday. Jock was exceedingly happy when 
 I made my appearance, as he was newly come from Edin- 
 burgh unprepared, and just meditating upon an extempore 
 lecture upon grace, which he was designing to give his 
 people. What a small church he has got. If you were to 
 take a ' ram race ' you might jump upon the top of it. The 
 gown is put on in the churchyard for want of a vestry.' 
 Writing by a friend who was going to preach in Perth, he il^-^^*^' 
 shows that he is still the poor ' probationer.' * I left a shirt 
 at Perth which you would do well to return, as my stock of 
 linen is not over abundant. If you could well want Cook's 
 Geography, or Mosheim, I should be glad of one or other of 
 them, as I am not very well provided with books here, being 
 connected with no library.' We suspect our father did not 
 ; send either, probably from sentimental motives. Coolis 
 
30 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERS ALIST. 
 
 Geography^ a fine work in two large volumes with admir- 
 able plates, was the first book our father had ever purchased 
 from his own earnings, these being 30s. won at the Univer- 
 sity by playing marbles ! Marbles in those days were 
 marbles, costing two a halfpenny, and our father's skill was so 
 great that he could not only keep himself supplied, but 
 dispose of a large superfluity. I still remember his 
 marvellous skill, when, after forty years of disuse, he 
 occasionally deigned to show us boys how marbles might 
 be played. These reminiscences must be strange to a 
 ' University Man ' of the present day, but it must be borne 
 in mind that John and James were respectively twelve and 
 eleven when they first donned the scarlet collegiate gown ! 
 
 He seems to have been severely tried during these years 
 with Mr Hagart. ' I shall only have one holiday, or two at 
 the most, about this time, as my boys are such constant 
 housekeepers that they spend all their play days within 
 doors, pestering the servants, quarrelling with each other, 
 and for that reason it is with no small reluctance that they 
 were permitted to enjoy a relaxation from lessons. Even 
 though it were for nothing else than to confine them 
 within the schoolroom, and to stand with my back to the 
 door with the poker in my hand to keep them from getting 
 out, my presence would be required during the holidays. 
 I have a strong fancy among my other instructions to teach 
 them earnestly the good policy of going out of doors upon 
 these occasions, as a means of making their play days more 
 numerous ; they seem to have no idea of any amusement 
 except fishing, therefore as soon as they came from the 
 country they set about preparing tackle for next summer ; 
 and when that is done they will sit down and sigh, and 
 mope, and long for the day of their emission from city smoke 
 and puddle, where neither a puddock* or a scur would deign 
 to take up its abode. I would not be surprised though they 
 would set stabgut in the street gutters if they were sure of 
 catching vermin, — so amazingly fond are they of hooking 
 
HIS SARCASTIC TENDENCY. 31 
 
 living creatures.' He seems to have had no idea of out- 
 door games or amusements himself, nor to have imagined it 
 his duty to show his pupils how to make a sensible use of a 
 holiday other than by lessons : when out of doors — and he 
 had a keen zest for the country and a quick eye for 
 country life — it was to utilise his time in artistic cultivation. 
 
 He thus missed the practical training so advantageous to 
 a man of the world ; and this he never became, although 
 shrewdness and common-sense in the ordinary affairs of hfe 
 were his whenever he deigned to descend to them. 
 
 ' I received yours, in which I find that you have received Jjog^^^' 
 
 the brass plate which I ordered from Mr T . The 
 
 stupid fellow sent it directly to Perth, addressing to ; 
 
 he is as complete a gowk ^ as ever I saw in a public business 
 such as his, which requires so much taste and discrimination. 
 I spent about half an hour attempting to make him under- 
 stand that / was not you and that you were not I; but after 
 all, like Tristram Shandy's mother, w4io was told every day 
 for twenty years that the world ran round about (but always 
 forgot it) — after all, the intractable animal sent it to Perth, 
 and I have never seen it — how, then, could I write a letter 
 along with it ? 
 
 There is a keener touch of sarcasm in his letters at this 
 time than would have been anticipated from an especially 
 kindly nature ; but, as was the habit of the time in Scotland, 
 he probably used it as a cloak to his mental sufferings at 
 times. ' I heard of Mr Fleming's death from you for the 
 first time. I had just a day or two before wrote {sic) my 
 father inquiring about him, and asking if I might write him 
 a letter, which Bowie proposed I should do. I don't think 
 I heard of his being in the asylum, neither could I under- 
 stand from the ambiguous construction of your sentence 
 whether he died there or not. It is just as well that he is 
 dead, poor fellow ; for as his mind was growing a complete 
 wreck, he would have been thrown immediately back upon 
 * A stupid person, properly a cuckoo ! 
 
32 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 his father's house, where he would only have added another 
 to the list of maniacs which are there already. I hope he 
 has immerged into a world of greater tranquillity and clearer 
 perception, Avhere groundless suspicions and fears shall be 
 unknown, in which no chemical aid shall ever be resorted 
 to to allay his apprehensions of poisoned food. I fancy the 
 blood-vessel burst in his brain, as that, to all appearance, was 
 in great commotion. I was long of opinion that his indis- 
 position arose almost wholly from chagrin and disappoint- 
 ment, and that a church or a good living of any kind would 
 have set him right, for he was particularly severe upon the 
 character of all who had got before him. Well, Smith says 
 he began to grow mad as soon as he came from London, 
 where he had expected to cast a figure and drive a way for 
 himself. But, whatever his faults were, let them rest now 
 where, like himself, "they cease from troubling," an expres- 
 sion which, though in Job it is affirmed of the wicked only, 
 may in some sense be affirmed of all.' 
 
 The remarkable success of his friend Pollock's poem is 
 here adverted to. Although less than two months since it 
 was issued, ' Since I came to Edinburgh a second edition of 
 Tlie Course of Time has been printed and sold, and orders 
 are issued for a third. Pollock will amply remunerate his 
 friends now for all their expense in his education.' 
 
 He writes our father at this time a letter rebelling against his 
 supposed claim to special consideration. The fact was, that 
 our father at an early age had sacrificed himself for his father's 
 family, by leaving aside his hopes of a church and entering 
 the scholastic profession — first in Lauriston Academy, Glas- 
 gow, and afterwards in Perth Academy — so as to secure a 
 settled income from which he could, and did, support his 
 own parents, and push on his brothers. But as he was only 
 a year older than James, the latter had always too much 
 self-respect to feel under an obligation ; and so soon as he 
 was in a position to do so, readily accepted his share of the 
 family responsibility. It showed the mutual confidence of 
 
TURBULENT PRESBYTERIANS. 33 
 
 the young men that, at the end of a defiant letter, he asks 
 for the loan of a few pounds : * I have been meditating for 
 two or three days upon taking a trip to the Border to canvass 
 likewise, but they are such turbulent animals the Presby- 
 terians there, that it is dangerous to be among them. The 
 Presbyterians are best in Scotland with the sword of ecclesi- 
 astical authority brandishing over their heads ; they are not 
 civilised enough for liberty and independence. Liberty is for 
 perfect beings, and law, and strict law too, for fallible men ; 
 and that is the reason why Whigs, and all your universal 
 suffrage gentlemen, who are universally allowed to have a 
 most extravagant conceit of themselves and the rabble, 
 scarcely allowing that they are even capable of error, and 
 exhibiting themselves (of course) and their disciples, the 
 mob, consisting of colliers, coblers, pawnbrokers, shear- 
 grinders, weavers, caddies, and all idle and discontented 
 scoundrels, including Paddies of every description, as the 
 models of perfect and finished humanity ; that is the reason 
 I say why these gentlemen love liberty, because they fancy 
 themselves to be above law. But seeing they are obliged 
 to constitute a nominal head and delegate their authority to 
 him, no sooner does he begin to exercise it over them than 
 they cry out, ' We are the masters, you are our servant, sir — 
 we won't be ruled ;' and so they supplant the poor soul by 
 another, and thus the Jingo-ring goes rapidly round, till some 
 master spirit jum^^s in amongst them, ties all their necks 
 together like a parcel of slaves, and whips them into obedience 
 — their natural element. K'ever a Whig ministry can keep 
 their ground in this country ; they have had chance after 
 chance to no purpose, and the reason is obvious, because 
 among fifty Whigs there are fifty different opinions, but 
 among fifty Tories, one.' The reign of eloquent 'Tribunes 
 of the Peoj)le' had not then set in, and party government 
 had not reached its present development, when great prin- 
 ciples no longer influence our political leaders, and ' states- 
 manship' consists not in far-seeing measures, but in 
 
 D 
 
34 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 expediency, political necromancy, and the open bribery of 
 an extending constituency. 
 
 But a great mental evolution was about to commence. 
 "With the soil carefully prepared to receive the seeds of 
 vivifying doctrines, a severe and extended study of the letter 
 as well as the spirit of the Scriptures developing his critical ■ 
 as well as his spiritual intellect, James Smith was now to 
 meet one of the greatest influences of the time. Had he 
 been more a man of the world, or less of a student, it would 
 not have been of so much consequence ; but one who could 
 write as we have seen about Presbyterians, was necessarily 
 on the verge of leaving them behind him. 
 
 loth June < I have not yet escaped from the city, and will be here 
 
 for several days yet ; but I think it a very fortunate thing 
 for myself that I have been detained so long, for I have 
 
 Irving. heard Mr Irving's lectures — lectures which have fully 
 confirmed me in an opinion which I was beginning to 
 adopt, or rather had already adopted, before his arrival, 
 viz., the personal reign of Christ during the millennium, 
 which, of course, is just at hand. The subject is of 
 such importance that I need not ask or recommend you 
 to study it, but when you do, read no commentators ; I do 
 not believe there is a blessing upon the reading of human 
 productions, and that unjustifiable, yet almost general 
 dependence which moderns place upon learned men.' Here 
 follows advice as to reading the Scriptures, and a great array 
 of texts to show the approach of the millennium, or a 
 redeemed state of the earth. ' Your prejudices may go 
 against it at first, but do not listen to them till you have 
 fairly pondered the matter, for the clergy have sadly 
 bewildered the Scripture, by mixture of philosophy and 
 classical learning, making a body of divinity a monstrous 
 and intricate labyrinth. Although our Saviour says it is 
 nothing more than good news of the kingdom, and his 
 
 preaching was just " Repent, for the kingdom cometh." 
 
 There is nothing else ; the death and resurrection of our 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 35 
 
 Saviour, of course, are important parts of our creed, but they 
 were merely preliminaries to the grand consummation of the 
 whole in the kingdom. We are saved by the same faith as 
 Abraham and the prophets, and they looked forward to the 
 kingdom. The thief on the cross was saved by faith in the 
 kingdom, " Lord remember me when thou comest in thy 
 kingdom." ' 
 
 Despising and scoffing at the liberty of the Whigs, he 
 equally rebelled and repudiated the domination of the clergy. 
 He had studied deeply, and found himself no nearer to his 
 God, and had to return in simplicity to this novel faith that 
 was so old, but still was d^. faith — the belief in the millennium, 
 and the personal reign of Christ. Henceforth, for a time, 
 his mind was in a state of turbulence and dangerous excita- 
 tion, and it is more than probable that, like many more at 
 that time, it was on the verge of being unhinged. 
 
 A few days later he writes to his father in still more 
 excited strain: — 
 
 ' I write you now again to let you know that I sent you \^a\\ June 
 ,£20, that, in case of miscarriage, you may be advertised of 
 it. I have also sent you the " Cry from the Desert," and if 
 I can get any other pamphlet upon the subject will enclose 
 it also ; but you must return them after you have perused 
 them. I hope that by this time you have considered and 
 received the long-concealed truth which the Scriptures con- 
 tain regarding the kingdom of the saints upon the earth. If 
 you have not, be not hasty in rejecting it, as such precipi- 
 tation must be very dangerous.' After a tirade against 
 divines, he continues : — ' They have wrought themselves up 
 into a most absurd belief that the Bible is only to be under- 
 stood by spending wearisome days and wearisome nights in 
 the reading and research of human productions ; and, after 
 all, when the research has been made, the poor don't under- 
 stand them, and the rich won't listen.' Here follows more 
 texts and explanations (from one of the same learned 
 divines !), and he then launches into a style of argument 
 
3G SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 wliich always seems to have had an undue fascination for, 
 and hold over, his analogical mind. ' He says also to the 
 Jews, " There be some standing here who shall not see 
 death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom," 
 or in another passage, ' the end of the world.' Xow^ we know 
 that the end of the world did not happen at the destruction 
 of Jerusalem — neither the coming of Christ in the clouds ! 
 But this is easily understood by considering the character of 
 prophecy in general, which is all twofold (as Isaiah says of 
 his prophecies, not one of them shall want its mate), typical 
 
 and antitypical "Wherefore you also see type and 
 
 antitype, as it were, confounded together in Scripture; by 
 this key, however, you may separate them. For the same 
 reason the kingdom of heaven was said to come at the 
 destruction of Jerusalem, because it is really to come at the 
 destruction of the mystical Babylon, which is the antitype 
 of the first Babylon; of course, ail the prophecies in the 
 Old Testament regarding Babylon refer to both (for this 
 reason, Cyrus is a type of Christ, the destroyer of the second 
 
 Babylon) Regarding the state of the nations under 
 
 him not much is said ; we may anticipate from this doctrine 
 the speedy conversion of the Jews.' 
 
 Is this merely the ordinary result of rehgious enthusiasm 
 kicking against the dead formality of the sects, and grasping 
 at a great spiritual reality behind the outward form of the 
 Christian creeds? "Will it beat its wings off against the 
 dull wall of the w^orld and drop to the usual level, or end 
 in an asylum — the place we have agreed to confine those 
 who depart too far, or to a dangerous degree, from the recog- 
 nised standard of human mentality — a standard in itself suffi- 
 ciently vague to cover a multitude of aberrations ? It is a 
 question how far this strange mind could be judged by any 
 standard; and even now, looking back in unprejudiced 
 generosity upon this period of his career, we could not say 
 honestly how far his mode of looking at the unreality of the 
 physical world, and the desperate reality of types and 
 
FOLLOWING IRVING. 37 
 
 symbols, swayed his actions; or a most dangerous turmoil 
 in the higher regions of his great brain, that might well have 
 produced lasting inflammatory conditions. 
 
 It would appear that at this time he had a strong and living J5tii Jime 
 faith in the Scriptures, while fully acknowledging their 
 literal inaccuracies and physical errors ; yet his unorthodoxy 
 was rapidly growing and maturing. This was not from un- 
 belief, but largeness of faith. He looked upon the Church 
 as unbelieving, and with much justice — a view that was 
 then becoming universal, that culminated in England in the 
 Oxford movement of 1833, in order to save the English 
 Church from the assault of Rome on the one side and 
 infidelity on the other ; and that produced in Scotland the 
 great awakening that preceded and followed the Free Church 
 movement. 
 
 In the meantime, the powerful preaching of Irving Avas 
 greatly influencing the finer minds of the time, and a letter 
 to his father shows the bias of his religious views — a bias 
 that through all the struggle of his literary life, in spite of 
 the shrewdness and judgment of his business and worldly 
 intellect, remained the ruling influence of his career. He 
 carried his father and many of his father's family into the 
 Irvingite camp — and left them there — for nothing to him 
 was final, all was progressive. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 PREACHING UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. IRVING. 
 
 The opinions of a mind in course of development may be 
 considered of little value in themselves, nor are tliey, except 
 as a link in the chain of progress. Eut a mind that is not 
 in course of development is unworthy of consideration, and 
 the stage at which any active mind has arrived must re- 
 present the ultimate development of many human intelli- 
 gences progressing thitherward from a lower stage. There- 
 fore it is that the honest and sincere convictions of any 
 human being, and the mode in which they have been 
 arrived at, are of interest to the student of philosophy, as 
 well as of men and manners — and still more so when he is a 
 man of exceptional brain-power and unquestionable attain- 
 ments. 
 
 AYe will not, therefore, apologise for transcribing letters 
 that seem, in the light of sixty years after, and in the midst 
 of the materialistic present, as unreasonable as they did to 
 ' sensible ' men in a time of indifference, formalism, and 
 practical unbelief. For the religious world of the time 
 approximated to the geological, in its belief in former 
 cataclysms and violent revolutionary movements, while they 
 scoffed at the possibility of their repetition at the present 
 time. The public believed that the Christian world owed 
 its formation to the direct interposition of the Divine mind 
 over a period, just as the modern world had been prepared 
 for modern civilisation by the violent action of fire and 
 water over cycles. But that any direct interposition of the 
 
PREACHING UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 39 
 
 Divine mind should take place now was as impossible for 
 them to imagine as a flood, or any cosmic catastrophe, till the 
 great day they all believed in with a half-hearted, dead-and- 
 alive sort of indifference, when the heavens should be rolled 
 together like a scroll, and the world consumed with fervent 
 heat. This was too far away to disturb the equanimity of 
 minds struggling to obtain their daily bread. 
 
 The position of average orthodoxy was really untenable. 
 It preached half the time from ancient prophecy, as if the 
 Almighty had ceased to justify His ways to man, and 
 looked upon His message already delivered as final. It was 
 nothing that ancient revelation covered centuries and was 
 progressive — it stopped absolutely with Jesus Christ. ISTo 
 one dared reason from the past as to the present, until the 
 ' false prophets ' arose — with religious Sir Charles Lyells — 
 and declared that the Almighty still held communion with 
 his people as of old, that a Church of loaves and fishes was 
 not the Church of Christ, and that the coming ' kingdom ' 
 was a living reality ; no parson's story, but a people's hope. 
 A serious position this for a poor tutor to take up, with his 
 daily bread depending upon the continuance of his con- 
 stituents; and therefore James Smith was about to enter 
 upon a struggle with the orthodox, commonplace world, in 
 which his success was only to be proportioned to his neglect 
 of his own mission and transient devotion to the world he 
 was not in sympathy with. Meantime he enters into the 
 struggle with confidence. ' I am like to become an author sth Nov. 
 
 ^° 1828. 
 
 soon in spite of myself, and not unsupported by friends who 
 encourage me to do so, and will be able to defend me against 
 any hazard to which I may be exposed. This I tell, how- 
 ever, in confidence, not to justify myself, for I seek no 
 justification, I am confident of having the truth to support, 
 but to quiet any alarm which you may feel for me — in 
 maintaining opinions at variance with the clergy — Mr Irving 
 has desired me to send up whatever I write upon the subject 
 to London, and he and numerous friends of all ranks, whom 
 
40 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 I could name, arc willing to superintend the printing, and 
 spend and be spent in any Avay for the propagation of these 
 opinions.' 
 
 His present views were looked upon by his friends at 
 that time very much as they would be to-day. His 
 friend, Islv Bowie, writes to our father from Edinburgh : — 
 ' I am sorry to inform you that your brother James is far 
 from being well. He has just been calling for me, and I 
 cannot better explain to you the nature of his complaint 
 than by describing to you something of his conversation. 
 He has learned, he says, from the prophecies that Christ's 
 second coming is just at hand, that He is to come and take 
 up his abode in Edinburgh, that Arthur's Seat is the Mount 
 of Olives, &c. A few days ago I chanced to call for him, 
 when he assured me that he had that day discovered a key 
 to the whole of Scri23ture, and so persuaded was he of its 
 efficacy, and that some great crisis was approaching, that he 
 had determined to go to London to communicate his views 
 to Mr Irving — that he had actually gone and made enquiry 
 respecting the sailing of the packets, and that if there had 
 been a steamboat he would assuredly have taken out his 
 passage that day. I have also learned that he has been 
 calling on a clergyman in Edinburgh with a view to make a 
 convert of him to his views, and I am assured by a mutual 
 friend — for I am not acquainted with the clergyman myself 
 — that the impression produced upon his mind by the inter- 
 view was, that his friends should be immediately informed 
 of his situation. You will easily see that my only object in 
 mentioning these things is to satisfy you that I do not WTite 
 upon light grounds. I am fully persuaded now that it is 
 not a mere fit of enthusiasm with him, but that he is the 
 victim of a real disease which is gradually increasing, and 
 the progress of which ought, if possible, to be checked by 
 the most speedy and vigorous measures, and I am happy to 
 say that he is in some degree sensible of his situation. He 
 confessed to me to-night, when I was expostulating with him 
 
DANGEROUS MENTAL STATE. 41 
 
 on the folly of allowing his mind to be led away by such 
 fancies, that he was aware his mind was in a strange state ; 
 but, he added, I cannot help it — some evil spirit has got 
 possession of me. He is aA^erse from talking upon any sub- 
 ject but that of the prophecies, but when he does so he is 
 perfectly sensible, and coherent, and collected. And there- 
 fore, although I know he has been writing to you of late, 
 yet being on business I think it very possible that you may 
 
 still be ignorant of the true state of his mind Your 
 
 brother is an old and very esteemed friend of mine, and in 
 writing this I only do for him what I would wish to be 
 done for myself in similar circumstances, yet for obvious 
 reasons I would not wish him to be informed of it. I am 
 in great hopes that his malady is only in its incipient state, 
 and thus it may still be successfully resisted.' 
 
 In all probability my father went through to see him at 
 this time and remonstrated with . him, followed by letters in 
 strong terms of condemnation of his conduct, which roused 
 his brother's holy ire. To throw away all chance of prefer- 
 ment and worldly success in the profession he had chosen 
 and been educated for, at such great cost and sacrifices to 
 himself and his father's family, seemed no less than madness 
 in the then condition of the family. My father was then 
 about to be married ; and to have this additional anxiety 
 added to the support of his parent's home, and other brothers 
 struggling forward, was no doubt exasperatmg; nor were 
 his fears other than justified during the next few years of 
 James' life. His letters have not been preserved, but 
 James' answers are before us, and very characteristic they 
 are. ' I received your last letter in due time, interspersed, 20th Mar. 
 or rather concluding, with some of your useless and incon- 
 siderate remarks upon Millennarianism, which it would be 
 more creditable to yourself to suppress. You are not perfectly 
 sure that they are wrong ; if you were so, you never studied 
 the subject, according to your own confession, and what is 
 still worse, have resolved never to study them. I can only 
 
42 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 pity you, and pray that you may be disabused of your folly. 
 If you expect by sneers and laughter, or mere advice, to 
 reason me out of them, I can only say that you are treating 
 me with unmerited contempt. If you have any arguments 
 I have no objection to hear them, but I shall be much 
 
 obliged to you to send me nothing else I wrote to 
 
 my father about his proposals to remove to Perth, but I gave 
 no decided opinion. I only said that I could not see the pro- 
 priety of it, and unless some great good is to be expected, 
 why put the family to such a trouble, and why desert his 
 two sisters who, though he can't be of much pecuniary use 
 to them, will be made more comfortable by having him near 
 themselves, than separated from them by a distance which 
 they will never be able to measure, and he perhaps as seldom. 
 I wish you could lend me two or three pounds till Whit- 
 sunday. At this moment I have not one single shilling. I 
 have only one person from whom I can borrow here, and 
 that is Mr Bowie, and I would ratlier defer borrowing from 
 him at present, lest I should be under the necessity of apply- 
 ing to him again before the term. Have you got the 
 memoirs of Jacobitism ; if you have I wish you would look 
 if anything is in it about Joanna Southcott, as I wish par- 
 ticularly to know her history.' This is the first reference to 
 a name that was to exercise a powerful influence over his 
 career. Otherwise the necessity for worldly wisdom in the 
 family affairs, exemplified by this glimpse of his dependent 
 father's house, and his own impecuniosity, surely excused a 
 somewhat severe letter from the elder brother, who was the 
 mainstay of the family ! He sent the money requested, as 
 we see from the notice of repayment, and evidently accom- 
 panied it with a strongly worded letter. 
 
 * I have just now received your most extraordinary speci- 
 men of headstrong irritability and passion I never 
 
 got such an abusive letter in my life, and I hope you may 
 
 never send me such another You have attacked 
 
 and vilified me before you know what I was doing, just as 
 
A RUN INTO ENGLAND. 43 
 
 you have all along opposed tlie millennium before you under- 
 stood the doctrine.' After much more in the same style, in 
 which the attempt to influence him without ' reasoning ' with 
 him is evidently the unkindest cut of all, he proceeds : — 
 * You accuse me of trusting to my own wisdom, and seem to 
 imagine that my whole error lies in that. This is a down- 
 right lie, and the whole of your letter, taking it in mass, is 
 little better ; nay, I regard it as a piece of irreverence and 
 presumption almost amounting to blasphemy — if it is not 
 blasphemy itself — inasmuch as you have reviled and damned 
 and maltreated doctrines which, for aught you know of them, 
 
 may be divine If you are determined to disclaim 
 
 me as a brother unless I abandon my present opinions, do 
 it; for till I am convinced of their falsehood I will abjure 
 ten thousand brothers before I would neglect such awful 
 realities.' 
 
 The day was fast approaching when his relations, if they 
 did not actually disown him, were to tacitly taboo his name 
 as that of a brilliant and powerful intellect that had gone 
 irretrievably astray. 
 
 ' I am now once more landed in the country for nearly a Casterton 
 fortnight past in rather a duller retreat than Carfin was, but loth June 
 pretty enough of itself. There is, however, nothing of interest james to 
 to visit around, and no walk of any beauty more than a quarter '^°^^' 
 of a mile in length. The house belongs to Principal Nicol 
 of St Andrews, and we have his summer library for a school- 
 room ; there are several hundred volumes in it, but few of 
 any high value. Since you wrote to me last I have been in 
 England as far as York. I passed through several English 
 towns, such as Carlisle, Penrith, Kendal, Lancaster, Bolton, 
 Manchester, Leeds, Durham, and Newcastle, but I am 
 miserably disappointed in their appearance. Newcastle is 
 the finest of all these, and Glasgow would make a splendid 
 metropolis to the whole of them. I would disdain to put 
 Edinburgh into comparison with any of them. The chief 
 thing I remarked about the English — now in this they cer- 
 
44 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 tainly far surpass us — is their cleanliness. I saw no such 
 dirty hovels and streets as in Scotland ; there seemed to be 
 more equality between rich and poor. Ko doubt, however, 
 this cannot hold so true in the great metropolis. Their 
 windows were remarkably clean, and they seemed to be for 
 ever scrubbing them. A thing which is never seen in Scot- 
 land is very frequent in England — female servants cleaning 
 windows two or three storeys high. By a stupid neglect I 
 went into England with Scotch money, and had nearly got 
 into a scrape. I got a few notes, however, exchanged at 
 Penrith by giving the waiter at the inn sixpence for each.' 
 
 The above trip, although he does not say so here to his 
 brother, was taken in order to visit John AVroe, * the prophet' 
 of Ashton-under-Lyne, and successor to Joanna Southcotte. 
 He wrote his father in a different strain, but as he had 
 already directed his father towards Irving, this sudden 
 desertion to a new master, without his key — the partial 
 truthfulness of all creeds and faiths — was scarcely acceptable 
 to the one any more than to the other. ' Perhaps I should 
 have written to you sooner than this, but I had nothing 
 particular to write that you would take any pleasure in 
 hearing, or about which you have any desire to be informed. 
 I was nearly a fortnight away altogether, and on my Avay to 
 and from Ashton got a tolerably good idea of the character 
 of England, which, in respect to the towns at least, I consider 
 are infinitely beneath in beauty and substantiality to our own 
 country.' 
 
 When he re-visited Scotland in 1852, after an absence of 
 nearly a quarter of a century, he had forgotten his own country 
 and become Cockneyised, and could not sufficiently express 
 his surprise at the superiority in comfort, in fittings, and in 
 substantiality of the Scottish houses of the same class. 
 
 He continues : — ' I was as far as York, of which I thought 
 very little. I was four days at Ashton, and saw enough of 
 the Prophet to convince me that his work is from God, and I 
 pity the ignorance and infidelity of those who are so wise in 
 
pollock's 'course of time.' 45 
 
 tlieir own conceit as to condemn him as an impostor before 
 they know his doctrine or make any inquiries about it. 
 " Despise not prophesy ings," says St Paul, " prove all 
 things ; " but our modern church has so little faith that it 
 laughs at the idea of a prophet, and yet it pretends to faith. 
 It may as well pretend to miracles ; it has as much of the 
 one as the other.' 
 
 It is evident he is now as much self-absorbed in the new 
 ' law ' of ' the Prophet ' as he was in the * Gospel ' of the 
 millennium, and the news having reached his brother, called 
 forth another strong letter from the same quarter. He stands 
 up valiantly for his new friend and master, easily proving on 
 scriptural grounds that he was justified at least in examining 
 this claim to inspiration. It was at this time that he showed 
 the slight tendency to dogmatism and persecution, so rarely 
 absent from a religious enthusiast, and of which his liberal 
 and Catholic mind was on the whole remarkably free. 
 
 Having taken a holiday from Mr Hagart's, in order to 
 visit John Wroe, he was unable to get away on the occasion 
 of our father's marriage ; and wdiat with his religious stand- 
 point and the sharp letters intercrossing, a certain coldness 
 had arisen on my father's side. ' I received yours, per James sth Dec. 
 Napier, the style of which I perceive is now reduced nearly 
 to the freezing-point, which is just what I have been expecting 
 for some time past.' After his usual protestation against 
 being lectured, he goes on to write in the most friendly 
 manner regarding matters of interest to his brother profes- 
 sionally, continuing : — ^ I wdll send you the copy of the 
 Course of Time, which I got from Pollok, if you give my 
 father yours. Give my compliments to Jane (Mrs Smith), 
 and tell her she owes me a letter, and that she is happily 
 named Jane, for it is the feminine of John. Jean is the 
 French for John, showing that in France the men are 
 women.' 
 
 Happily for the friendship of the brothers, our father had 
 married into a family with whom all the young men were 
 
46 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 intimate, the James Napier mentioned above being a brother 
 of our mother, and an intimate friend, then and for some 
 years after, of James Smith. It was impossible, indeed, to 
 retain enmity against one who was so open-minded, and 
 ready to argue and reason for the faith that was in him, and 
 who was besides of a remarkably amiable disposition, with 
 great personal charm of manner. Throughout his life our 
 mother continued to retain towards her brother-in-law — 
 despite the cloud under which he lay for long — the strongest 
 feelings of sisterly affection. The Mansion House of The 
 Lethame had indeed been a rendezvous for those cultivated 
 and well-read young men when they found themselves in 
 Strathaven, more especially as their known capacity and 
 industry pointed them out as having ' a future ' in prospect. 
 The correspondence was consequently continued even on the 
 dangerous topic of religion : — * Your objections— original, I 
 guess — to the Apocrypha, you may send at your leisure; 
 though it is not probable they will be original to me. I see 
 fewer difficulties in the Apocrypha than in the ISIew Testa- 
 ment, which must either be very much corrupted, or it is 
 full of blunders ; but, of course, you are blind to these, and 
 only see the faults of the poor Apocrypha. Little, how- 
 ever, will you reap from your objections if God at last 
 acknowledge, by the voice of prophecy and miracles, as he 
 will do very shortly, that the Apocrypha is his own. It 
 will be as well to be cautious. If the book of Jonah had 
 been lately discovered, and not in the Bible, could you have 
 detected its divinity ? "Would you not have laughed at the 
 Jewish fable 1 I question very much if you have yet the 
 gift of discerning spirits. I believe there are many divine 
 writings lost, and many to be found and restored. The 
 Bible is not half complete. There are many extant of as 
 good and better authority than the JS'ew Testament in 
 general. Who composed the New Testament canon ? In- 
 spiration ? No. Do the evangelists lay claim to inspiration ? 
 No ; and the early fathers only speak of them as faithful 
 
INSPIRATION OF APOCRYPHA. 47 
 
 men. How then do you prove their inspiration 1 Xo man 
 can prove any such thing. It was what they knew notliing 
 of themselves. I beheve the book of Hermes, which is not 
 in the canon at all, to be next to the Revelation of St. John 
 one of the finest books of the Christian age. He is one of 
 the many prophets for whose rejection Christians must 
 answer ; for, as the Apostle Paul says, God will include 
 both Jew and Gentile under the same sin, that the one 
 boast not against the other.' 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 WITH THE TROrHET JOHN WROE, ASHTOX-UNDER-LYXE. 
 
 We now come to a part of James Smith's life that can only 
 be justly handled with much S3^mpathy. He had visited 
 John Wroe and been satisfied as to the divine origin of the 
 movement. Disgusted with the callous indifference of the 
 clergy, who entered a sacred profession without feeling they 
 were entering upon a divine mission, but merely as a means 
 of livelihood; the energy, the faith, the self-sacrifice, the 
 living vitality of the Ashton movement had come to him 
 like a new revelation. There was much in it too, external 
 to the spirit, that was in sympathy with his mind. The 
 Eastern tone of thought and exj^ression, the highly analo- 
 gical character of their expressed views, the halo of romantic 
 mystery, and the very sacrifice demanded, all appealed to a 
 religious mind dissatisfied and unsettled. His hopes, from a 
 worldly point of view, were anything but high, and his pre- 
 parations were of the slightest. Up to this time, when he 
 had long entered manhood, he does not yet seem to have 
 provided himself with a watch, and had been pricing one in 
 Perth, which was to be provided out of money previously 
 advanced to his brother and father. " But since you are 
 not to provide the watch, you must endeavour to return 
 all the money you borrowed. Besides the £2 Mic. got, 
 I gave my father £5 on your account, which you promised 
 to repay, otherwise I would not have given it ; for as I 
 intended to leave Mr Hagart at the middle of May, I re- 
 quired to make provision for myself, and that I fear is by far 
 too little I don't expect to be very profusely dealt with 
 
WITH THE PROPHET JOHX WROE. 49 
 
 for a while, but I'll be provided for, and that will suffice. I Going to 
 intend to return to Ashton at the end of May, and I don't 
 know when I may come back again, but I will never be idle 
 wheresoever it be. 
 
 ' The chief reason why I do. not write often to my father is, 
 that he will take no interest in that which most intimately 
 concerns my happiness. Whether right or wrong, they are 
 my affairs and concern me ; and if I am continually slighted 
 and contemned when I speak of them, it is natural for me to 
 hold my tongue. I believe I have as strong natural affec- 
 tions as you have ; don't be too hasty in judging. All men 
 are not made alike, and you are not the standard of perfec- 
 tion. So conscientious am I in all my conduct towards him, 
 that I am willing to stand at any time before the tribunal of 
 God to have the case tried between us. I don't say that I 
 am faultless, or that my temper is very good ; but these are 
 natural imperfections that are not to be taken into the 
 account. 
 
 * " When fate is pending, vain is caution," as the proverb 
 says ; so you must just let me alone, and make no remarks 
 upon my present resolution. It is impossible for me to be 
 happy without following it, and in doing so I am happy and 
 contented. Whatever you may think, wait and see what 
 will come of it. It will be something better than you 
 anticipate. At the worst it is but a bold experiment, and 
 many of these have succeeded to admiration. This I recom- 
 mend as the easiest to yourself, and the most conciliating 
 and liberal ; and, in fact, it is not worth your while to do 
 otherwise, for opposition is vain. Though this is the first 
 time I have spoken of this, it is nine months since I 
 resolved.' 
 
 He next writes on his way to Ashton, partly to acknow- 
 ledge receipt of a remittance, and partly to give an account 
 of their friend Robert iN'apier's death : — ' It was so sudden 
 and unexpected to me that I went into the bedroom laughing, 
 when the landlady — who knew nothing of it — told me they 
 
 E 
 
50 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 were there ; ami, to my surprise, James (Dr James ^N'apier) 
 was standing crying at the bedside, and Robert was quite 
 insensible, — his eye-balls were half-concealed and dead, and 
 all the symptoms of life to be seen was a very easy mechanical 
 kind of breathing, as if it were occasioned by a pair of 
 bellows. I went away about half-past twelve, and said I would ' 
 be back in two hours ; the Dr came to the bedroom door and 
 said good-bye, and when he returned to the bed — life was 
 gone, so that neither of us saw him die.' 
 
 ' I will write you from Ashton, if I am permitted ; but as all 
 our conduct is under the direction of the Spirit, that per- 
 mission may be withheld, or given under restrictions. I 
 will write you some way or another ; but as this is probably 
 the last free letter you may receive from me, I hope you will 
 treat it with some kind of respect.' 
 
 He had now broken away from all his early associations, 
 but not before his powerful personality had influenced many 
 about him, more especially my mother's brother, Dr James 
 Xapier, like himself a skilful mathematician, but one to whom 
 also figures were living things and types or ' images ' of ideas. 
 As we know little of his life at Ashton-under-Lyne — a period 
 that greatly influenced and coloured all his future — I will 
 give a few letters nearly in full, somewhat bitter as they 
 are at his family not treating him with the respect that he 
 considered his due; for never did he lose his self-respect 
 or consciousness of power ; but the growing austerity that a 
 feeling of social martyrdom was deepening in his character, 
 could not crush, although it somewhat embittered, the 
 humour that was probably what saved him from extremes. 
 But as this is the ' story of a mind,' it had better be told 
 in full. 
 30th Sept. < ;N'o doubt you imagine that I have taken the pet, and 
 
 James to that your wise saying is truly verified — that a madman is first 
 of all afraid of his own friends and then of himself ; and prob- 
 ably it is true enough, and I don't feel disposed to gainsay 
 it. But it is some consolation to me to think that I am 
 
THE DOCTRIXE OF THE WOMAN. 51 
 
 now arrived at the last stage of madness, for in many 
 respects I am afraid of myself. Xo doubt you will be pro- 
 phesying amongst your admirers that I will soon be back 
 
 again, like P , who, according to your authentic history, 
 
 was also at Ashton ; and, perhaps, you are laying schemes for 
 raising a subscription to keep me in Perth Asylum till I 
 recover my senses, and see things as they really are, and not 
 as prophets and seers and dreamers of dreams represent 
 them. Your brother-in-law, James, will perhaps be able to 'R.^' ^.^^^' 
 keep himself till he recover, for I understand he is preaching 
 boldly, like another Paul, the doctrines of the woman's 
 church, and declaring, as it was " in the beginning, that it is 
 not good for man to be alone," and Christ could not be the 
 Saviour without a woman. This is horrible a'nt it. He says 
 that the reason why our Saviour got two asses to ride into 
 Jerusalem was that one was for his wife, but she was not 
 there. ■ This is horrible a'nt it. I wonder you can't persuade 
 him to renounce this belief by convincing him of the error 
 
 of his ways I heard that you were at the point of 
 
 coming to Ashton to see me, but were dissuaded ; perhaps 
 you w^ere afraid that it was full of madmen, and that you 
 would get maltreated and perhaps butchered amongst them. 
 John TVroe's savage look and humpback would frighten you ; 
 you would, no doubt, wish you had bought a strait-jacket 
 for him at Manchester as you came through ! And if he 
 spake in the name of the Lord, saying, "Thus saith the 
 Lord the God of the house of Israel," you would run back 
 as fast as you came. But John is off now. Where he is none 
 of us can telL Many a tear he shed before he left us ; and 
 possibly we may see his face again no more. He has gone to 
 encounter the contempt and scorn of such wise, enlightened 
 men as you — to be dragged about, as he has been, by the 
 beard, and trampled under the feet of an infuriated mob — to 
 be imprisoned, and perhaps put to death, for the good of 
 those who come after him. But God will know him and 
 acknowledge him as his servant, even in rags ; and, should 
 
52 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 he die, we will get another to lead us and give us the 
 Word. 
 
 * It was as well, perhaps, you did not come this summer, 
 as I was not settled in my way of living, but perhaps you 
 may pay your visit next summer if all be well and I am here. 
 
 Hebrew ? I have begun teaching. I have taken a schoolroom at about 
 .£9 rent, and am likely at least to get a living by it, and that 
 is all I care for. As long as I have the Word of the Lord to 
 hear and to study, and the many great promises which will 
 be speedily accomplished, when Israel is gathered into the 
 fold which His Spirit is preparing, I do not care for any- 
 thing more than a bare living — that perhaps I will get with 
 difficulty, but I will get it 
 
 * My father argues against my religion for taking me away 
 from my friends, as if he had never read the iS"ew Testament. 
 What have I to do with friends ? I have no father but God, 
 and Him I have always acknowledged. But when I see him 
 who is called my father on earth at variance with God, I 
 would not hesitate which to prefer; I cannot follow both.' 
 
 The special attraction of Ashton, to his mind, is probably 
 best explained in what follows : — * I have got an opportunity 
 of preaching such doctrines as I like, and an audience to 
 hear me. Little did I think, New Year before last, there 
 was a people in the country who were taught by revelation a 
 doctrine so closely allied to my own. I never had heard of 
 them. Yet I discovered, by the grace of God, such doctrines 
 as they hold, and, of course, must have been led and taught 
 by the same Spirit which teaches them, for it was such 
 doctrine as never man taught or heard of before, being hid 
 in the mysterious language of Scripture, and reserved for 
 the latter days to be brought forth to the light. I preach 
 now extempore, and find after all that I go to the pulpit 
 with greater ease than I used to do in Scotland, and preach 
 a half hour's sermon as freely as if I had committed it to 
 memory. All doctrines I preach now — eternal punishment 
 
 Universal- , . , , . 7 
 
 ism. and universal redemption m one and the same discourse. 
 
ALOOF FROM HIS BRETHEEN. 53 
 
 One Sunday I denied that Adam was made in the image of 
 God, and perhaps I may some day deny that ever he fell. 
 I told the people that the devil was quite right in all he 
 said to Eve, and that he did not deceive her, and that it was Preaching 
 not till he had eaten the forbidden fruit that man became ^^'^^''^''■ 
 like God, for God then said, " noiu the man is become as one 
 of us." And perhaps some day hence — but I have said 
 enough to show you more clearly what you are already well 
 convinced of, that I am mad, and that it is useless for you 
 
 to hold any external conference with me Give 
 
 my compliments to J , and tell that I am circum- 
 cised, which is a kind of marriage ceremony, for it puts a 
 ring on a certain member and takes a ring of skin off, and 
 that I have not shaved since I left Edinburgh. I look a 
 great deal better with the beard, and I decidedly prefer it 
 to shaving.' 
 
 In this, again, we see his clinging to spiritual analogies ! 
 No one can now judge of his appearance with the beard, as 
 his portraits are all after he had returned to his right mind, 
 ' shaved and lived cleanly !' 
 
 ' We have chased away John Wroe, and I expect by and 
 bye to have the sanctuary to preach in. This will be brought 
 about in the providence of God before the year close, I 
 believe, but it looks difficult at present, but God has pro- 
 mised it, and it will be fulfilled. I was not brought here for 
 nothing, and though father and mother, brothers and sisters, 
 all forsake me and laugh me to scorn, I can rejoice in 
 the assurance that they will soon confess themselves to be 
 fools. I have been happier here than ever I was anywhere 
 else, and perhaps never was more pitied than since I came here. 
 I would not take the best church in England or Scotland, 
 though I had the offer ; but I expect to be an instrument in 
 the hand of God in battering them all to pieces, and before 
 this time next year you will begin to suspect that you have 
 been as blind as a bat, for your school will soon be deserted.' 
 This is followed by more confident assurances, and yet by 
 
54 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 the very energy with which he declares his faith to be 
 unshaken there is a suggestion of questioning. But his next 
 letter gives further details of his hopes and expectations, 
 and the increasing growth of the paradoxical philosophy 
 that was usurping empire over his mind. He had evidently 
 received a letter of a kindly and persuasive character from 
 my father, 
 lotii June ' I am not yet inclined to comply with your request in 
 returning to Scotland, though I am ver}^ grateful to you for the 
 kind and friendly manner in which you urge me to it. If I 
 did return it would only he to suffer by useless regrets, and 
 I believe I should soon be back where I am again unless 
 you could prove to me that my faith is false, which I believe 
 is impossible. Yet I am willing enough to be convinced, 
 for it is not to be supposed that I should willingly submit to 
 imposture, especially when I am making nothing by it. But, 
 God knows, I came here by pure faith, and it has never 
 faltered since I came ; but every day convinces me more and 
 more of its truth, and what you may consider as equivalent 
 to a demonstration of its falsehood, is to me the happiest 
 event of all, and that is the end of the law, which was a 
 grievous yoke, by no means palatable to flesh and blood. 
 AVhen I left Edinburgh I never expected any remarkable 
 interference of Providence till 1832. I should, therefore, 
 be very sorry to leave Ashton at present, when more than 
 half of the time has expired, and that so much more comfort- 
 ably than I expected, for I really expected nothing but misery 
 for the first two years, whereas I have been very comfort- 
 able I had particular reasons of my own for coming 
 
 here, which are as strong and convincing as ever upon the 
 
 mind, though they do not now, and never can, upset it. It 
 
 was the novelty and sublimity of the subject at first that 
 
 Acknow- turned my brain for a fortnight. I have a great desire to 
 
 menSr* °^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ *^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ come, wliicli I have always invariably 
 
 aberration! specified as the crisis that would set my mind at rest. 
 
 ' This visitation of AVroe's, &c., was from the devil, for 
 
LEAVING ASHTOX-UNDER-LYNE. 55 
 
 God is the devil. "Wroe does not know tins, however. The 
 old boy hides it from him, and teases him confoundedly. I 
 have known it for nearly three years. It was that and other 
 things that whirled my head about, but it is a doctrine which 
 makes me now perfectly tranquil, and I love God now in- 
 stead of shuddering at His frightfulness, as I used. The 
 Christian's God is a horrible monster — a devil without the 
 name. Mine is a devil by name, but infinitely amiable. I 
 
 don't fear him I confess I would be as well in one 
 
 part of the country as another at present ; but as I have 
 nothing particular to do in Scotland, and would wish to 
 return here in the course of a year again, I am inclined to 
 stay still if I can. I have no other reason. I am no bigot 
 or fanatic, I assure you, for I believe in all religions. I 
 believe as much in Mahomet as in Moses. Mahomet is an 
 excellent character and a true prophet, but he can't get jus- 
 tice from Christians.' After specially thanking his brother 
 for his kindness towards him, he continues : — ' There must 
 be seven standard visitations in succession ; the seventh is 
 the Messiah.' 
 
 This letter is signed ' Yours most affectionately,' and 
 evidences, from one who was never effusive, a turning 
 towards the palm branch that had been stretched out to him 
 by my father. He seems suddenly thereafter to have ' given 
 in ' and resolved to return home, for a week after we find 
 him writing thus : — ' I have now suddenly resolved to return 22nd June 
 home. I abhorred the thought till yesterday, but I will 
 satisfy you all for once. However, I firmly believe I shall 
 return again, unless you persuade me by pure reasoning, 
 without any of your ridicule or mockery, which, you know, 
 always makes a man worse, as it stirs up his spirit of con- 
 tradiction. I shall leave this, I expect, on Tuesday the 
 
 28th I have already given up teaching ; the vacation 
 
 'Commenced here on oNIonday last I am very sorry 
 
 to leave this place, and yet I have a desire to face my old 
 friends and acquaintances to let them see how mad and how 
 
See page 119, , . , 
 Spiritualism, nini I 
 
 5G SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 foolish I am I hope this ^vill find you sounder in 
 
 mind and body than your humble servant, and I sincerely 
 hope that you may never inhale any of the contagious vapour 
 of that palace of the moon which they have erected in your 
 neighbourhood. Take a good large bolus of indifference and 
 thoughtlessness now and then with a glass of toddy, and 
 there is no fear of you. If I had done so I might have 
 escaped the brand of infamy with which the world has 
 marked me.' This is signed * Yours intolerably,' and ends 
 this portion of his ' strange eventful history.' 
 
 AVe really know little of his Hfe at Ashton, either when 
 * under the law ' or afterwards. We know he taught a 
 school, and it is probably to this time that he refers in the 
 letter to Lady Lytton on 2nd May 1851 : — ' I spent thirteen 
 months at the fireside of an old lady of sixty-five — a prisoner 
 because I had not a spare penny to go out with, or even to 
 hire a newspaper to read. She was no relation of mine, and 
 I gave her all the money I had for my support, which was 
 only ten shillings a week ; and I look back upon that period 
 of thirteen months as one of the most mysterious and in- 
 structive periods of my existence, and often I say, with tears 
 in my eyes, " Where is the blessedness that then I felt?" I 
 was then under spiritual training for that Catholic doctrine 
 which I have ever since been endeavouring to develop, 
 which, in fact, I regard as my mission, and to which I make 
 all the little knowledge I possess converge.' Another letter, 
 long subsequent, left undated, unaddressed, and unsigned — 
 probably a draft letter — may be looked upon as his Creed, 
 adopted at this time, and as the result of a man of thirty 
 sitting cogitating with a woman of sixty-five, penniless, pro- 
 spectless, an alien from his Church and people, but still with 
 a great peace, for the mystery of existence was solved to 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE WOMAX. 
 
 This * doctrine,' which was at the bottom of James Smith's 
 Ashton escapade, exercised a powerful and predominating 
 influence upon his mind ; and has, indeed, been a favourite 
 one with various thinkers of more or less prominence. We 
 may instance the case of Hawthorne, who in his Scarlet 
 Letter thus speaks of his heroine : — 'And as Hester Prynne 
 had no selfish ends, nor lived in any measure for her own 
 profit and enjoyment, people brought all their sorrows and 
 perplexities, and besought her counsel, as one who had her- 
 self gone through a mighty trouble. Women more especi- 
 ally — in the continually recurring trials of wounded, wasted, 
 wronged, misplaced, or erring and sinfid passion, or with 
 the dreary burden of a heart unyielded, because unvalued 
 and unsought — came to Hester's cottage, demanding why they 
 were so wretched, and what the remedy ! Hester comforted 
 and counselled them as best she might. She assured them, 
 too, of her firm belief that, at some brighter period, when the 
 world should have grown ripe for it, in Heaven's own time, 
 a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the 
 whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground 
 of mutual happiness. Earlier in life Hester had vainly 
 imagined that she herself might be the destined prophetess, 
 but had long since recognised the impossibility that any 
 mission of divine and mysterious truth should be confided to 
 a woman stained with sin, bowed down with shame, or even 
 burdened ^svith a life-long sorrow. The angel and apostle of 
 the coming revelation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, 
 
58 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 pure, and beautiful and wise — moreover, not through dusky 
 grief, but the ethical medium of joy — and showing how sacred 
 love should make us happy, by the truest test of a life 
 successful to such an end.' 
 
 Here Hawthorne's sympathetic but circumscribed genius 
 has taken a view incompatible with the experience of the 
 world. Even the pleasure-loving, suffering-fleeing Goethe 
 had a keener insight — 
 
 * Who hatli not ate his bread in sorrow, 
 Who hath not passed the darksome hours 
 Weeping and waiting for the morrow, 
 He knows ye not ye heavenly powers. ' 
 
 At any rate, the followers and believers in the mission of 
 Joanna Southcott and her successors sought no such perfec- 
 tion in their propliets, any more than they found it in their 
 apostles. Only in 1885, ^larcli 10, did James J. Jezreel 
 die, who claimed to be the heir of the prophetic inspiration 
 of Joanna Southcott and John Wroe. He was known as 
 the 'Kentish False Prophet,' and has carried the little com- 
 munity, that has degenerated into a ' sect,' into the present 
 day. The male was represented as the spiritual or superior, 
 the female as the temporal or inferior ; and while the spiritual 
 head, Jesus Christ, was perfect, the female w^as not neces- 
 sarily so in her type. 
 
 Of all the so-called Brides, Joanna Southcott was the only 
 one who succeeded in establishing a church, and as her 
 writings are procurable, we know her claims from herself. 
 Joanna 'I sliall uow add the copy of a letter that I sent to a 
 
 minister in 1796, after he had disputed with me that the 
 marriage of the Lamb was to take place in Heaven. I said 
 IS'o ! the marriage of the Lamb meaneth when he cometh to 
 unite all nations, to be as one sheep imder one shepherd, 
 and Christ to be the shepherd of the Avhole. The Lamb's 
 wife meant a woman, that all these things should be revealed 
 to ; and readiness was perfect obedience to all the commands 
 of the Lord.' Ultimately this idea worked itself into the 
 
 Southcott 
 
JOANXA SOUTHCOTT. 59 
 
 belief that she was to be the virgin motlier of a second 
 Messiah, and 'on October the 11th, 1813, Joanna separated 
 herself from society, forbidding even her female acquaint- 
 ance, and awaited the extraordinary accomplishment of this 
 prediction,' which she drew from Rev., ch. xii. verses 1 and 
 2 : — ' And there appeared a wonder in heaven, a woman 
 clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon 
 her head a crown of twelve stars, and she being with 
 child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.' 
 Joanna died 27tli December 1814, giving directions that her 
 body should be kept four days, at the end of which time she 
 expected to revive and to be delivered. 
 
 From amidst her doggerel verses one was long considered 
 pointedly to refer to James Smith : — 
 
 ' Now tell him plain, he's not the man ; 
 
 For 'tis by it must be done ; 
 
 Back to the church, the standard, all must come : 
 For on the altar I was seen at first, 
 And on the altar did the glory burst. 
 Where Simeon did the holy chihl behold ; 
 And on the altar are the plates of gold.' — 1795. 
 
 John AVroe was as poor and as illiterate as Joanna South- 
 cott. Born in 1782, he seems to have always been un- 
 fortunate in affairs. In 1819, during a fever, he seemed to 
 have been greatly disturbed mentally, and on recovering from 
 it, his biographer observes : — ' He wrestled with God both day 
 and night for several months, and sometimes walked up and 
 down his own fields, with his Bible, sitting under the hedges, 
 and reading easy passages.' Trances and visions followed, 
 ending in prophecies and predictions. After joining the 
 Southcottians he travelled in Spain, France, Germany, and 
 Italy in 1823, Scotland in 1827, and Wales in 1828. It 
 was probably when in Scotland in 1827 that James Smith 
 became influenced by him, as he speaks of ' three years ' in 
 1830. 
 
 It is curious to note that the prejudices of the people were 
 
60 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 more excited by the fact of the disciples of AVroe wearing 
 long beards, than by the principles they held ! In these 
 days this is not readily understood ; but until the Crimean 
 War a beard M'as scarcely ever seen in England, and not until 
 the inauguration of the volunteer movement, in force, was a 
 moustache permissible ! A brother, who used to be much on 
 the Continent, coming home with a moustache in 1859, was 
 violently remonstrated with by his business acquaintances in 
 the good town of Glasgow within the author's recollection. 
 Thus we read:— 'On the 22nd of 2nd month, 1825, John 
 entertained a select party of the members of his own societies 
 from different places ; their appearance, in passing to and 
 from his residence, excited much attention among the popu- 
 lace, particularly as they had lately adopted the ancient 
 custom of ivearing their beards ; a great tumult was raised in 
 consequence, and some of them received much indignity : 
 one was actually trodden under foot.' In Wroe's life we 
 find the following aUusion to James Smith, as 'Written from 
 John Wroe's mouth by William Tillotson : ' — * Sandal, near 
 Wakefield, 14th of 12th month, 1830. The devil is come 
 down from on high, upon your planet, and his works will 
 now appear, even the substance, and his agents with him, 
 and they will be as though they were going to take possession 
 of the planet. The Deists and Atheists will be at the head 
 of them, showing there is no God but themselves. And 
 James Smith, of Edinburgh, has been to enquire at their 
 hands, and not at mine; for I showed thee at Edinburgh 
 how he would roar like a lion in the street for madness that 
 he could not attain his end. But they will have their time, 
 and I will then have my time of sacrifice upon them.' 
 
 AU that we know of Wroe's end is, that he ' slumbers in 
 an Australian grave.' 
 
 That James Smith had much to do with the fact stated, 
 that ' We have chased away John Wroe, and I expect by and 
 bye to have the sanctuary to preach in,' would be suggested 
 by the above indication of Wroe's exasperation. Indeed, it 
 
EXTRAVAGANT CLAIMS. 61 
 
 is scarcely likely that one who looked iij^on Wroe as merely 
 temporary, who awaited impatiently a new dispensation, and 
 who, from his education and learning, altogether apart from 
 his powerful intellectuality and force of character, exercised 
 a great influence upon the brethren, could patiently submit 
 to the domination of this ignorant enthusiast. There is some 
 evidence of another reason which seems to have coloured all 
 his future life. He appears to have been so impressed with 
 his ' discovery ' of the oneness of God and devil, good and 
 evil, virtue and vice, and the universalism that was its 
 logical outcome, that he may for a time have believed him- 
 self, and spoken of himself, as the New Messiah. It is 
 possible that this meant something very different to him 
 from what it did to his hearers, but it is also possible that 
 he may, under the extreme exaltation of spirit to which he 
 alludes, aggravated by insufficient diet, have held for a time 
 most exaggerated ideas of his mission ! This is confirmed by 
 an undated letter about this time, written by one who was 
 clearly far above his ordinary Southcottian correspondents in 
 education and capacity. 
 
 ' I feel that you have quite mistaken the point I am made 
 to reject. It is not the grand spiritual work wrought within 
 your being, but your misappropriation of it to yourself in 
 your explanation and spiritual advice to others. Unity by 
 the Universal has inwardly revealed itself within you in a 
 phenomenal manner that you might in a verbal manner refer 
 all away from yourself, and direct by the Universal in 
 them to the Unity, that the Universal might universally 
 phenomenise them as it has phenomenised you. The new 
 creation having been effected within your being by the 
 Unity, all others must be directed to the same unity — the 
 Creative Source — that the Unity in them may regenerate 
 them in the same way by the same process it did to you.' 
 His sense of individuality at this time seems to have raised 
 up a certain amount of antagonism even amongst those who 
 continued to sign themselves 'Yours in the truth.' The 
 
62 SHEPHEIID SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 second long, well-written letter adds a postscript, from which 
 I extract : — * I dare not mention you or your works in our 
 family, so powerful is the feeling against them. The chief 
 and principal of all they continually reject is the Individual- 
 ising the Messiah in yourself — with this one error they 
 condemn all that is Divine, and close themselves against 
 even enquiry with bitter zeal. While I feel great love is 
 given me for all that you put forth, with the exception of 
 this one delusion.' 
 
 This particular note of personal interest in the individual, 
 as distinct from the preacher, constantly arises in the cor- 
 resjDondence ; and it is clear that his remarkable personaHty 
 had a most important influence on the body in Edinburgh, 
 whom he had prevailed upon to follow ' the doctrine of the 
 woman.' Dr James iS'apier seems to have been a sort of 
 locum tenens for him in Edinburgh, and his letters at this 
 time were full of strong expressions of feeling, while also 
 giving an index to the condition of 'the Body,' as they 
 always describe the followers of the doctrine in the Scottish 
 capital. 
 
 ' I cannot express the joy I felt on receiving your letter, 
 and the comfortable tidings it conveyed increased my happi- 
 ness. Since your de^mrture I have been lonely indeed ; I 
 felt as if I were a solitary being in an immense waste, and 
 were it not the comfort I derive from the study of this 
 delightful and important work I could hardly have borne it.' 
 He describes some ' communications ' they had received at 
 their meetings, and continues : — 
 
 ' Another communication was respecting the Fall, and it 
 said that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was 
 the AVoman. Now I freely confess I am somewhat stumbled 
 at this, for the command not to eat of the Tree was given to 
 Adam before Eve was formed ; and likewise it is said 
 that the Woman ate of the Tree first and then gave it to 
 Adam. I shall thank you to make it a little clear to me.' 
 A very simple matter for his fertile mind to do, but we 
 
OTHER 'VISITATIONS.' 63 
 
 have not found his sohition. The 'AVoman' herself pre- 
 sented problems that were hard to solve : — ' Miss J. called ictu June, 
 on me that day I got your letter, but before it. She is 
 certainly very anxious about the work, and understands it 
 very well. We had a long conversation about Joanna's 
 writings ; the poetry was very hard to her, but she seems to 
 be getting over it.' To many indeed, besides Miss J., 'the 
 poetry was very hard ! ' But to those who were living in 
 an atmosphere of imaginative analogies anything provided 
 mental pabulum. ' You will recollect the short calculation 
 I showed you respecting the number, a short time before 
 your departure. I have enlarged it considerably, and shall 
 send it to you if I can get an opportunity, as it occupies too 
 much room for a letter. Put I may here mention a trifling 
 thing I have discovered, as it corroborates what you showed 
 me about the time our Saviour was in the grave ; that is, as 
 72: 44:: 3000: 18331 :N"ow what I mean is— when the 
 angel visited Mary, Elizabeth was in the sixth month of 
 pregnancy with John. Xow, supposing she was 5 J months 
 gone (which is as near as we can come), I find that 5 J bears 
 the same proportion to 9 (the full time) that 1833 J bears to 
 3000— or 51 : 9 :: 44 : 72. This is rather pretty. The time 
 would end on the last day of April 1834, and perhaps the 
 first of May may bring something.' 
 
 There is a child-like biblical simplicity about all this 
 which explains much of the character of the great religious 
 movements of that period — a period which just preceded the 
 Oxford movement of 1833, which saved the Church of 
 England from destruction. The religious excitement of the 
 time took many forms, in many of which, however, the 
 fascinating doctrine of the Woman cropped up : — 
 
 ' He was newly come from Port-Glasgow,' says the 
 same letter of his friend, ' where Miss Campbell was then 
 sojourning. He told me that one afternoon, meeting a lady 
 of his acquaintance, she said she had just passed a house 
 where a number of Campbellites were assembled — having the 
 
64 SHEPnERD SMITH THE UNI VERS ALIST. 
 
 gift of tongues ; a crowd was attracted about the house, but 
 the languages seemed to be dead ones, as nobody understood 
 them. Miss C. herself, however, spoke in her mother-tongue, 
 and said, "If there be any present possessed of a devil, in 
 the name of Christ let him come out ! " It seemed there 
 were none among them — at least the people observed nothing 
 extraordinary occur, although they w^ere, no doubt, rather 
 alarmed lest Miss C. might consider them proper objects as 
 receptacles for the legion, if such there were.' In another 
 letter he writes : — ' The Campbellites are not making much 
 stir just now, but they say that they have got Satan bound ; 
 he is in the form of a mouse, and they keep him in a cage.' 
 They were quick to see the follies of others, but apparently 
 oblivious how silly their own appeared to strangers, with- 
 out that ' key ' to which they constantly alluded as necessary 
 to explain their faith. 
 
 James' doctrine of 'Good and Evil' was hard for 
 even his devoted friend Dr James Napier to accept, 
 as he put it before him, and he thus advises on the 
 subject : — 
 
 ' I am now, my dear James, going to find fault with you, 
 and that is concerning your doctrine of Good and Evil. 
 Beautiful as it is, and true as I believe it, yet I do not 
 altogether approve of your indiscriminate promulgation of it. 
 Do not you think that it is rather strong meat for babes ? 
 "Will not wickedness find a cloak — an excuse under it ? To 
 those who see the extent of its beauty, I allow this v/ill not 
 occur, but I doubt few will see it. They will catch a small 
 part of it, and deaden their consciences that they may com- 
 mit sin with impunity. These are the mischiefs I dread 
 from it — perhaps I am wrong, very likely I am. You alone 
 can judge of the effect it produces upon your hearers, and I 
 have no doubt will act accordingly.' 
 
 I will anticipate by a few years, and quote the opinion of 
 James Smith some years later, when he still seems to be 
 enamoured of the feminine idea, although to him the 
 
EMANCIPATION OF THE WOMAN. 65 
 
 'Doctrine of the Woman' had become developed into what 
 sounds more like a j^hilosophy than a religion. 
 
 * It is with no small pleasure we reflect that the third 1st juiy 
 volume of the Shepherd appears under the shadow of a Her' 
 woman's wing. We have always regarded woman as the coronauon. 
 representative of the moral department of Nature ; as the 
 end of progress, which finishes in the emancipation of her 
 sex, and in the full development of her peculiar excellencies. 
 These being cultivated by the male, and reflected upon him, 
 at the same time elevate his character by his participation of 
 the feminine virtues, which must ultimately put a check upon 
 the horrid brawls of intellect, and the savage contentions 
 of jDhysical outrage and international warfare. This typical 
 character is not a conceit; it is a principle of ]S[ature. It 
 was in following out this principle rather too eagerly ("He 
 that believeth shall not make haste ") that the St Simonians, 
 under Enfantin, one of the most splendid doctrinists of the 
 age, amused the French, and confounded themselves by 
 looking out for what they called the Free woman, the repre- 
 sentative of the aspect material of industry and production. 
 They longed to find such a woman ; the very existence 
 of their doctrine and system depended on such a woman. 
 They could not find her — a sad confutation of the pre- 
 judgment of those who assert that imposters are easily 
 found when a people is prepared to receive them. Here 
 was a people — here was a vacant seat set apart for the 
 purpose — but neither France nor England could furnish an 
 occupant. To England they all looked for such a character. 
 Their doctrine taught them that England must produce her. 
 Nay, even the friends of Mr. Owen in Paris, who are now- 
 eager for his appearance in the French capital, and whom he 
 has sadly disappointed by his indifference to their earnest 
 invitation, look also to England for the personification of the 
 female principle in a woman. Their mode of reasoning is 
 difi*erent from that of the St Simonians, but the two facts 
 are the same. Now, all England, the very government of 
 
 F 
 
66 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 England, is womanised. AVe are not augurs, neither do we 
 regard omens — especially those on a small scale — when we are 
 treating of great matters, but we like to trace analogies on a 
 large scale when we are treating of large subjects ; and now 
 we say to both St Simonians and Owenians, Xow is your 
 time, seek out this woman, for the spirit of woman has now 
 ascended the throne of England. Is there a woman in 
 England who can represent her sex? If there be, let her 
 come forth, for be assured that until she appears there is no 
 salvation even for man. It is needless to reproach man for 
 not doing woman's work. He cannot ; he is not a woman. 
 "Woman has a work of her own to do. She has her own 
 feelings — she only can express them; she has her own 
 wrongs, she only can describe them. ]\Ian is waiting for 
 woman — and actually fighting with man because woman does 
 not intervene to terminate the quarrel. We have many 
 clever women amongst us — but what are they? Gossips 
 who can prate well, syrens who can sing ^j'ell, and blue 
 stockings who can write well on everything but salvation — 
 women who write for personal fame, for money, or merely 
 to give vent to their own vagaries. But there is scarcely a 
 woman amongst them who writes for any great social pur- 
 pose, in whom the selfish principle is absorbed in the social, 
 and who seems willing to make a sacrifice of her fair fame 
 for a time, that she may ameliorate the condition of her sex 
 and species. They are either not conscious of their degrada- 
 tion, or they want the moral courage to assert their rights. 
 Talent is not awanting. It is the faith in the moral pro- 
 gression and final destiny of the species that they lack.' 
 
 This would scarcely hold good to-day, when so many noble 
 women have shown themselves capable of self-sacrifice for 
 an idea. 
 
CHAPTER YII. 
 
 LEAVIXG ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE — THE EDIXBURGH BODY. 
 
 James (Laadox) Smith had evidently a great difficulty at 
 this time in reconciling his intellectual and social position to 
 himself and to the world — or rather, let us say, to the friends 
 who still believed in him. He had followed a false prophet, 
 they held, but yet he declared ' the light that led astray was 
 light from heaven,' and refused to believe that the false prophet 
 was not also a missionary in the pursuit of the divine pur- 
 pose. This paradoxical position he explained by his Doctrine 
 of Good and Evil, which his Edinburgh friends seem to have 
 accepted to some extent ; but the little coterie there was 
 evidently divided between allegiance to him and to the 
 Ashton prophet. 
 
 It may help to elucidate the condition of matters, if I 
 follow the views of this section of the followers of the 
 Doctrine of the Woman in the corres^Dondence from James 
 Napier, who remained in charge of the Edinburgh party, 
 and retained them so far in allegiance to James Smith. But, 
 7nore Scotice, they were at variance from the very first on 
 some hair-splitting questions that the perverse logic of the 
 national intellect had not been slow to raise. The young 20th Sept. 
 medical writes : — ' I daresay you would be very much 
 surprised to hear that I was attempting to preach ; yet so it 
 is. I felt myself stirred up to do it, and I have now spoken 
 
 four times There is a great deal of jealousy existing 
 
 in the body here. There are some of them, with Isabella at 
 their head, who think that whenever they hear a report of 
 any law existing at Ashton, it should be immediately adopted 
 
G8 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 here witliout any enquiry. The Committee think they have 
 no right to introduce any unless they receive them as laws 
 from Ashton, and I join with them. This causes contention, 
 and the body think the Committee exercising their power 
 
 with a high hand But what can stop them from 
 
 grumbling. There are two parties, and even the Committee 
 is divided. This is very disagreeable, but I can look for 
 nothing else.' 
 
 By this time evidently James Smith had decided that the 
 prophet was false, and Wroe having left the district, they 
 were on the outlook for a successor, and earnestly watching 
 for some reliable manifestations of the Spirit. Along with 
 this some very questionable financial operations had destroyed 
 the faith of the Edinburgh party in the brethren, but not in 
 their friend. 
 2nd Dec. « Your long-lookcd for and very welcome letter reached me 
 
 James ou Tucsday, and I immediately read it to those of us who 
 
 '^^^'^^' believe what you say, and I can assure you they were 
 delighted with it ; in fact, we would wish one every Aveek 
 if it were possible, so much satisfaction do they give us, as 
 showing the true state of things ; whereas I believe if you 
 had not been where you are we would have been left to 
 walk in darkness. The visitation of George Armitage, I 
 think, deserves to be carefully examined and looked after, 
 and you will now be a pretty good judge of what's what. 
 
 I intend going out to Cousland Park to-morrow to 
 
 let Miss Walker know the news. She joins with us, and of 
 course is as black as black can be with the other party. I 
 like to give everyone that is willing to see all the light I 
 can to comfort them. Miss W. had sent up some money to 
 the shop for several articles, which she will not now require ; 
 and she desires me to say that her request is that you get 
 the money, and keep it till an opportunity occurs of sending 
 
 it, or perhaps you may come in person I am 
 
 requested by some of our friends to make some enquiry 
 about the ornaments which were sent to Ashton — rings, ear- 
 
21st Dec. 
 1830. 
 
 QUESTIONABLE PROCEEDINGS. 69 
 
 rings, pins, &c. They all understood that they were to 
 have value for them. Can you do anything in this, or 
 can you tell us anything about them ; if so, it Avould satisfy 
 them.' 
 
 *I have to say some little more concerning the jewels. 
 The communication says they were to receive a change of 
 dress, and to be returned. Now, perhaps, you do not like to 
 do anything in this, but we here are determined to follow it 
 out, and if they do not deliver them up to indict them as At Ashton. 
 swindlers ! and Mr. Robert Blackwell will soon be caught 
 neck and heels. Perhaps you may think us hasty, but Ave 
 are firmly persuaded that it has all been a scheme to get 
 money, and, for my part, I doubt much if John Wroe has 
 ever been visited ; but I am inclined to susjDCct that he has 
 built entirely on Joanna.' 
 
 James Smith, however, writes apparently in support of 
 Wroe to an extent, as in Napier's next letter, after explaining 
 that he had been thrown from his horse, but had recovered, 
 he continues : — 'As for John Wroe's visitation, a very great iith Jan. 
 deal may be said on both sides. He himself said in Croft- 
 an-righ that there never would be peace with the TurJis, else 
 the Lord had 7iof spoken by him. By his own mouth, then, 
 I might condemn him.' 
 
 Many different facts point the way to weaken the faith of 
 those in Edinburgh : — 
 
 ' I am very surprised at the character you gave of Robert 
 Blackwell ; it is so different from what I am led to think 
 from some little things which I know. What made me 
 suppose a confederacy between him and John Wroe was — 
 First, John Wroe gave out that all the money was to be sent 
 to Robert Blackwell ; and, second, a few days before your 
 first letter about Wroe's affair reached me, Robert Blackwell 
 wrote the Committee here to send immediately all the money 
 they could, without mentioning a syllable about any mis- 
 understanding at Ashton. About £9 was sent him, and he 
 never cared more about us. You must allow that this was 
 
70 
 
 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 Move 
 suspicions 
 
 !1S to 
 
 Wackwell. 
 
 •JOtli Mai 
 ISGl. 
 
 Medical 
 Di.spt;nsaiy. 
 
 as fair a swindling business as ever was committed. Let 
 liim clear it if he can.' 
 
 A list of articles of jewellery sent, and which are demanded 
 back, follows — no blame being attached to James Smith, or 
 regret expressed at joining a movement which had given 
 him 'great peace.' 
 
 * Can you tell anything about Robert Stewart. His father 
 wrote for him to come home, but he has never answered the 
 letter. There was some money in the letter, and it was 
 addressed to Robert Blackwell. 
 
 * I should like much to hear of the Shiloh, although I 
 cannot think him anything great. No doubt he has his part 
 to do. I rather think there will be many Shilohs, l)ut when 
 the true one comes, it will be in a very different way, and I 
 doubt not we shall hear of it : with you, I think it will not 
 be before 1832.' 
 
 The friction between the parties in Edinburgh was mean- 
 time becoming stronger. 
 
 ' Don't say I forget you ; never a day passes over my head 
 but I think oft on you, but the reason of my delay at this 
 time is a curious fracas that has happened with us. The 
 other party, who still adhere to J. Wroe, with James Bruce 
 and George Spalding at their head, wanted us to deliver up 
 to them all the writings and also the books {Lives of J. 
 Wroe and J. Soutlicott) which are here for sale. Of course 
 this was refused. Well, last week, the four of the old Com- 
 mittee who are with us received summonses to the Justice 
 of Peace Court, which they attended yesterday, and a laugh- 
 able scene took place in Court, which ended in the parties 
 dismissal in statu quo. The Committee are exceedingly 
 anxious to get these pamphlets off their hands, and accounts 
 
 adjusted We meet, twelve of us in all, in my back 
 
 shop, twice a week, and discourse on the subject which 
 at present is of most importance to us. Your letters, so 
 much of them as I can properly read to them, always afford 
 great pleasure. Catherine AValker says that if she receives 
 
DISCREDITING THE PROPHET. 71 
 
 (here follows a list of jewellery) she is willing to give up 
 
 everything else At any rate, she is willing to take 
 
 what she can get, but does not wish to pay any money, 
 
 &c You will not allow me to say that they are not 
 
 all honourable men about Ashton, but you have not had such 
 an opportunity of knowing them as we have had here. To 
 go no further than that shop, the goods sent down to the 
 Friends here are the very offscourings of a draper's shop. 
 I think they are a bad lot in that shop. I sent up 5s. 
 nearly a year ago to purchase a girdle, and I have never 
 seen it yet. IS'ot that I value it, but I want to let you know 
 that my opinion of them is not formed hastily, but on 
 good grounds. But to dismiss these trifling disagreeable sub- 
 jects, I come to one of more moment' — namely, a discussion 
 of the character and evidence of the latest Shiloh, whom he 
 condemns for talking about ' quack doctors in religion ' — ' it 
 is rather low !' 
 
 His correspondent seems to have been rather touchy over loth April 
 the suggestion of mala fides, and to have Avritten with his Dr. James 
 customary asperity. In reply, Dr. James sent a partly ^^^^^' 
 explanatory, partly expostulatory letter : — 
 
 ' Robert Stewart came in to-day when we were met Referred to 
 together as usual, and on reading your letter I cannot refrain ^ 
 from replying immediately to set you right, as you have 
 totally mistaken my meaning in various things. You seem 
 to think that my reflections against some of the Ashton folks 
 in my last were made to prove that it must have been 
 all a got-up affair together, but you misunderstood me com- 
 pletely. I only mentioned it to show you how hardly they 
 dealt with us in Scotland. True, they did not get much 
 from us, but that was not their fault. Now I never dreamed 
 that you would imagine from this that I meant to throw 
 discredit on John "VVroe's visitation, as if he was responsible 
 for the conduct of his followers. By no means ; neither did I 
 mean you to think from that that I regretted anything that 
 has passed ; I do not What, in my letter, could 
 
72 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 lead 3'ou to believe that we were quarrelling with the other 
 party here. The fact is, by strict injunctions from head- 
 quarters, they were not allowed to speak to one of us, and 
 no communication existed betwixt us. This state would 
 most likely have continued to this day, were it not that 
 James Bruce refused to pay William Christie for a suit 
 of clothes which he had got, unless the books, &c., were 
 delivered up to them. Of course Mr. Christie summoned 
 him, and Bruce gave this reason in court, but it was not 
 taken, and next week George Spalding summoned the Com- 
 mittee as I told you. Their law book was handed up to 
 the magistrates (which I am sure is contrary to their laws), 
 and occasioned great sport to them. One of them threw it 
 from him, and declared that it was no wonder they left, as he 
 had never seen such absurd nonsense. Now I regret this, but 
 what could we do ; it was all their own doing. Instead of us 
 being bitter against them, it has all along been the very 
 opposite — here, at least, the bitterness is on their side.' 
 
 He then goes on to discuss the new Shiloh, which James 
 Smith was endeavouring to introduce to their notice, but 
 ' once bitten twice shy,' and the queries were numerous and 
 complicated. He adds as a postscript : — 
 
 * Don't be afraid of sending me good strong meat, none 
 has come as yet that is too strong — that is not the stumbling- 
 stone.' 
 
 It is unfortunate for our purpose that none of James 
 Smith's letters at this time are to the fore, but the replies of 
 his friend give an idea of the correspondence passing. He 
 seems to have been in an irritable state and one of mental 
 transition, still holding on to the hope of a Shiloh, and 
 endeavouring to explain his inexplicable position to others 
 and himself. The difficulty of conducting a metaphysical 
 and philosophical, as w^ell as exculpatory and inculpatory 
 correspondence, made misunderstandings of all kinds rife. 
 
 ' Your last letter w^as a welcome treat, as all your epistles 
 are ; still, I must candidly confess, I am not satisfied. I do 
 
WORSE THAN JUDAS. 73 
 
 not object to what you say — viz., that you prefer giving new 
 
 ideas to an old term, to that of changing the word, but 
 
 surely it is necessary, when you use a word in a sense 
 
 different from its common acceptation, to explain the meaning 
 
 you attach to it, else you never can be understood. You 
 
 might as well talk in an unknown language. Had you 
 
 distinctly explained what you meant by the word death, 
 
 when you first used it, I would have agreed with you at 
 
 once, and much unnecessary trouble saved ', but if you don't 
 
 think it labour lost, I do not. You say that the perfection 
 
 of the doctrine (his latest !) consists in contradictions. So 
 
 far as I comprehend it, I agree that it does consist in riddles 
 
 or apparent contradictions, but not in real direct ones.' 
 
 He blames his friend for writing severe letters on un- Letter to 
 
 . Miss Walker 
 
 founded reports to some of the ladies of the 'Body,' adding : — * 
 
 * You speak of charity, but although you have plenty of it 
 
 to them, you have none to us. I do blame you for being 
 
 so hasty, but only in charity and love.' Again in same 
 
 letter : — 
 
 ' Your father was here lately ; he said nothing to me, 
 but when calling on Miss Houston, I learned that he and Isabella! 
 Micaiah had been there asking all about you, and no doubt 
 you were prettily represented by her. She gave JMicaiah 
 a newspaper in which the whole story was contradicted, 
 signed by John Stanley. AYroe's party here are flourishing 
 this about in great style — you are a million times worse than 
 Judas. By the bye, you have somewhat to tell me about 
 your being Judas.' 
 
 ' I now see that I have all along completely misunderstood leth May 
 you. What you call strong meat I eat like a penny loaf ; 
 the fact is, that was the strong meat to me which now I 
 see to be no meat at all — like the dream of a hungry man. 
 
 I am so delighted that I cannot rest till I answer 
 
 you. Your letter recalls to my recollection the delightful 
 conversations we used to have, which the clouds and smoke 
 of visitations have so long covered, but which, when the 
 
74 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 dirtiness is removed, seem purer than ever. Whatever has 
 been strong meat to me is what concerns these visitations. 
 I have always thought that you believed that we were 
 implicitly to rely on all they said, but now I know your 
 meaning, I entirely agree with you. I believe they have all 
 been visited, but they have all — Joanna herself as much as 
 any one — mixed up a great deal of trumpery with the truth. 
 I am persuaded that the prophets and apostles did the same. 
 I do not dispute your reasoning on the Bible ; it is cer- 
 tainly nothing, in the way you view it. Like electricity, 
 which may be either positive, or negative, or neutral in a 
 body ; like a magnet which has one kind of polarity at the 
 one end, a different kind at the other, and intermediate it is 
 neutral, or is nothing, as there it is no magnet. Like the 
 rays of light, too, which can be decomposed into different 
 colours, but taken together they are white, and that is no 
 colour at all — in short, like words which are literally nothing.' 
 We have only incidental information as to the ' Body ' in 
 Edinburgh, but some of them continued his most assiduous 
 correspondents throughout his life, and evinced much attach- 
 ment to him, uninfluenced against him by the strange dance 
 he had led them. 
 
 James On July 21, 1830 : — * We are now removed to a meeting- 
 
 Napier. house at Stockbridge, a cleaner place, but close to the street, 
 and we are much annoyed ; there is no help for it yet.' 
 Later, we find a dozen of them meeting in his dispensary 
 or ' back shop.' Amongst those mentioned we find : — 
 
 21st Dec. ' -^*^^ Foster was perfectly correct in her statement. 
 
 1830. John Stanley distinctly stated to me, in the presence of 
 
 Isabella Houston, that Samuel Lees said he himself was the 
 Father.' He says further on : — ' I must say that Stanley is a 
 real rascal ; he has no soul. In Miss Houston's kitchen, 
 Avhere all tlie Friends, as they are called, were assembled, he 
 told them in my presence that you were very poor — exceed- 
 ingly poor — and seemed to insinuate that it was a judgment 
 on you for your conduct, and all the Friends cordially joined 
 
RETURNS TO EDINBURGH. 75 
 
 with him. My dear James, if all the Ashton folks are like those 
 whom we have seen, they are not much worth ; and unless 
 there is something very particular to keep you among them, 
 leave them and come here, where you will be welcome.' 
 
 ' Those of us who have seceded still keep together. Ji^ij J^"- 
 There are twelve of us in all, and we meet on Thursday 
 evenings and Sunday forenoons in my back shop, and read 
 the Scriptures. None of us, I believe, will ever have the 
 least relish for a lyreacliing ; at least, for my part, I would 
 rather labour hard with a pick and shovel any hour than 
 hear one of their drawling discourses on nothing.' 
 
 We learn that the party who adhered to John "\Yroe had iggj,^^'^'' 
 James Bruce and George Spalding at their head ! 
 
 Throughout, there is a steady faith in his friend on the 
 part of Dr. Napier, which is very touching. There is evidence 
 that he sent money. He frequently asks as to his friend's 
 circumstances, and proffers aid to the extent of his power. 
 ' Write me soon again. I never weary of hearing from you, J^^^'j ^^^^ 
 but often when I do not hear from you.' 
 
 The following month James Smith left Ashton to face his 
 friends, and shortly afterwards appeared in Edinburgh. A 
 letter from Dr. Napier, addressed to him at Perth, where he 
 was on a visit to my father, seems to point to a finish-up of 
 their connection with Ashton. The doctor's health having 
 broken down, he had left Edinburgh. 
 
 But although Dr. Napier continued to take a keen interest 2^^h July 
 in the subject for a time : — ' You may be sure I feel very Glasgow, 
 lonely — no one to converse Avith on the subject so near my 
 heart ; for the doctrines of truth are laughed at by all wlio 
 don't know them. Some of your pamphlets have found their 
 way to this place — I mean Straven — sent to Mr. French, I 
 believe, and of course have excited horror in the bosoms of 
 the pious ! What fools ! but the day, I trust, is fast 
 approaching when such infants shall be Avhipped into know- 
 ledge ; when the schoolmaster will go through every village 
 
76 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST 
 
 and teach the knowledge of good and evil.' But his 
 credulity has been too sorely taxed for his common sense ; 
 and in his last letter he describes the views of Dr. Tytler, who 
 was apparently claiming a ' visitation ' in Edinburgh, as full 
 of fancies and ' pretty coincidencies.' ' He seems to me to 
 resemble Zion more in another respect — that is, he is totally 
 independent of what has gone before. He professes to 
 know no other doctrine than his own, and least of all does 
 he Avish to know ; from this circumstance I set him doAvn 
 in my own mind as an anomalous instance of the sportive 
 propensity in the Divine mind — his appearance being calcu- 
 lated to rouse the wonder merely, not to instruct the minds 
 of those who come in contact with him. From your letter, I 
 imagine there are a number of his kidney about London 
 — perhaps in other places also — both males and females ; 
 and, perhaps, their appearance may be intended to show that 
 the natural mind, assisted solely by its own inherent powers 
 and faculties, is perfectly qualified to work its own regenera- 
 tion ; as those who are thus divinely gifted are in reality 
 not much better, taken as a whole, than idiots ! ' 
 
 Although this is signed 'Yours ever affectionately,' we 
 know that the correspondence abruptly closed, and was never 
 again renewed — Dr. James Xapier dying at Latham Cottage 
 in 1844. The cause of the breaking of a friendship which 
 had stood such severe strains is not on record, but the 
 probability is that, away from the immediate influence of 
 James Smith's enthusiasm, and under my grandmother's 
 strong common sense, his more practical scientific friend 
 returned to more orthodox studies, and to the practice of a 
 profession sufficiently arduous in itself, to a delicate man. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE EASEL, THE PULPIT, OR THE PEN? 
 
 N" being thrown free from liis 
 Ashton-under-Lyne labours, al- 
 though not yet by any means 
 freed from the connection, James 
 Smith was at a loss what to turn 
 to as a means of livelihood. He 
 had one gift which, to the end 
 of his life, was a source of plea- 
 sure and a solace to him, and to 
 it he now turned, in the hope 
 that it might prove a staff to lean upon. But there is no 
 singleness of purpose in his pursuit of Art. His letters are 
 as full as ever of Theology. Had he emancipated his mind 
 from its extreme religious bent, and made a god of Art, as 
 so many do in the present day, there is little doubt that he 
 would have taken a very high place amongst his contem- 
 poraries as a master of his brush. Dilettante as he proved 
 to be in this connection, he yet left much work of very high 
 excellence, and with great originality of expression. 
 
 * I scrawl you a few lines by Miss Napier I am 30th Dec. 
 
 throng drawing and collecting specimens, &c. Have sold a James to 
 few, and got £10 for the lot. I expect to make a little more, ^''"" 
 so that it will at least cover my expenses, and enable me to pre- 
 pare for teaching, if such is to be my lot. Cholera is coming 
 on fast, being at Haddington. The doctor here is appointed Jas. Napier. 
 to one of the wards to wait its approach. You must take care 
 and not be too genial on Saturday evening, as it is said to 
 have a very great predilection for such kimmers as you at 
 
78 
 
 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 James 
 Thonisrm, 
 '20th June 
 18-32. 
 Edinburgb 
 
 Pertli, who never think they have been hospitably treated 
 unless they get homo they know not how, whether on the 
 back of a police officer or of a fiery dragon. We are just all 
 here preparing to receive it, and good execution, no doubt, it 
 will do if once it gets into some of the quagmires of this 
 dirty metropolis. ..... Archie is blethering away as usual. 
 
 He doubts many things — almost everything ; but 
 
 he'll take the oaths — any oath — that the Reverend Fathers 
 
 prescribe. All's right that comes from them They 
 
 asked him if he could justify God in inflicting pain on 
 children. Says Archie : — " I laid all the blame on Adam, 
 because he was not there to retort ; they could not refuse this. 
 I put it down their throats with a ramrod." There is nothing 
 so easy as being orthodox, for absurdity passes for wisdom.' 
 
 ' Both of your favours are to hand. The drawings have 
 also arrived safe, and are now getting ready for the Exhibi- 
 tion. I have shown them to two friends of mine well 
 qualified to judge in such matters, and they have expressed 
 their aj^probation of the works. They, however, seem to 
 think you have placed rather high prices on them — not that 
 the prices are above the merits of the drawings, but rather 
 that it has been hitherto found a difficult matter to get pur- 
 chasers for water-coloured drawings at high prices. My own 
 experience coincides with this view, and I think it an 
 important end gained when we can sell your pictures at 
 even very low prices, as your reputation and name is thereby 
 spread. I was unwilling to alter your instructions till I again 
 heard from you on the subject, which I beg to do in course. 
 The picture for the frame of Straven Castle is hardly big 
 enough, and in this respect I am at a loss how to do. Tell 
 me your candid opinion of the relative merits of these two — 
 Head of Holy Loch and Straven Castle. If it be favourable 
 to the latter, I shall put it in the Exhibition in place of the 
 former. Do not be fastidious on the score of being unwilling 
 to make such a use of a picture which has hung in my house, 
 for I assure you I am much more anxious for the favourable 
 
EXHIBITING HIS PICTURES. 79 
 
 reception by the public of your works than for the gratifica- 
 tion of any feeling of my own. 
 
 ' I shall put in the Old Cross of Scone, Edinburgh Castle, 
 and Loch Leven Castle, besides whichever of the other two 
 you wish. The Old Cross appears to me to be patchy, and 
 probably wants depth of shading at the roots of the trees, 
 but possesses good breadth of effect. Edinburgh Castle 
 possesses all I could wish had the sky harmonised with the 
 warm sunny foreground, which it does not, for it is cold and 
 bleak. Loch Leven is brilliant in colour, and reminds me 
 of Turner. The scene is one seldom met with, and, instead 
 of sunrise, I should call it sunset, as approaching nearer in 
 effect to the warm glow of a summer evening. As this 
 meets your eye alone, I have no hesitation of expressing my 
 
 ideas, however crude they be I am proposing, in 
 
 my own mind, to name the prices as follows : — 
 
 The larf^e one at six fmineas, 1 • i t .i r 
 
 _,, ^ „ , ° ' > including the irames. 
 
 ihe rest at four guineas, J 
 
 Should none of them sell, I can supply you with the needful. 
 Have no hesitation in availing yourself of this offer; you 
 can pay me a hundred years hence, if not sooner.' 
 
 ' Your last favour is received, and as you say the principal 5th juiy 
 object you have in effecting a sale of your drawings is to Glasgow. 
 raise wherewith to take you to the metropolis, allow me to Thoinsoi. tr. 
 say, once for all, that £20, or any sum under it, is entirely ^^mitu 
 at your service, and you have only to let me know M'hen you 
 would have it. 
 
 ' The Institution Rooms don't open till 1st August. Li the 
 meantime, your pictures are all in frame — quite in apple- 
 pie order, and hanging in my dining-room till that date. If, 
 before then, you do any of the same sizes which are more to 
 your mind, I can easily change them. 
 
 ' My father and mother have been married fifty years to- To strath- 
 day. All their children assemble under their roof to dinner 
 to-day to hold a jubilee. "When there I shall stay a few 
 
80 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 days. I am just setting off. I shall see James 
 
 iNapier.' 
 
 AVith the money received for his pictures he seems to 
 have proceeded to London, where he took up his abode with 
 a friend he had been intimately acquainted with at Ashton- 
 under-Lyne, and Avho had there suffered severely for his 
 connection with the ' Prophet ' — even to imprisonment. His 
 primary object was to improve himself in drawing, 
 '.ttii St-pt. ' My address is at Mr. John Garland's, 81 Pearson Street, 
 
 London. Kiugslaud Road. I have received some very valuable infor- 
 .lohn" mation in drawing since I came here from an artist who has 
 
 been very free in communicating to me what he knew, and 
 who did a drawing before me to show me some modes of 
 working. From him I have got some little recipes and 
 secrets which will enable me to produce quite new and very 
 beautiful effects. I am better pleased with London than I 
 expected. 'Tis a very fine place, clean and beautiful upon 
 the whole, considering the quantity of paupers, &c., in it ; 
 and many of the plastered brick houses have a much finer 
 effect than the real stone of Edinburgh. It is, however, 
 most oppressively large. 'Tis half a day's walk to go to any 
 
 of the extremities and back again 'Tis by far too 
 
 large a place. It would make three or four very fine cities, 
 and I believe they will soon resort to some method of 
 diminishing the size of it by removing the Court altogether, 
 or at times, to some other city or cities, which will divide 
 
 the honours and profits with it I think, upon the 
 
 whole, I have got as much as I can get of mere instruction 
 as to modes of working, and that I regard as very valuable, 
 for it will enable me to produce, in the tenth part of the 
 time, a much finer effect than before — more especially in fore- 
 grounds, which I can make as bold and clear as I choose with 
 very little trouble. There is great advantage to a painter in 
 a knowledge of chemistry, for the beauty and smoothness of 
 colouring is more indebted to the operation of chemical agency 
 than to the mere manner of laying on. No doubt, light and 
 
Owen's co-operative system. 81 
 
 shade and choice of colours are wholly intellectual ; hut if 
 the mind is any way disconcerted by the colours not uniting 
 well, or changing or muddying, it is obliged to leave off the 
 main subject of consideration for the purpose of curing these 
 evils, which, in failing to accomplish, despair and inactivity 
 are the infallible consequences.' 
 
 We now first hear of Robert Owen, with whom he came 
 to be so mixed up, and, strange to say, in conjunction with 
 Irving, for whom he still felt a great regard. 
 
 ' I may mention what, perhaps, you won't hear from the Owen. 
 newspapers, that Mr Owen's co-operation system was set 
 agoing here on Monday last ; it is a very large establishment ; 
 I was quite surprised when I saw it. Irving preaches on Irving. 
 Sunday in the great hall belonging to it — a most superb 
 room. In this hall Owen lectures two or three times a 
 week, and sometimes collects 1300 people. A gentleman 
 told me he believed his lectures were worth £15 or £20 a 
 week to him. As the system is much more popular among the 
 working classes than I had any idea of before I came here, 
 and likely to be adopted to a considerable extent, I may 
 give you some idea of it. It is a kind of bank called an 
 Equitable or Exchange Bank, which gives what is called 
 notes of labour. A workman brings his work to the bank, 
 and he receives in exchange, not money, but a labour note 
 to the amount. With this labour note, wherever it is cur- 
 rent, he purchases whatever he wants ; and when it returns 
 into the bank it then ceases to circulate, 'for the bank has 
 already received its value in labour. The bank, of course, 
 is the place where all productions are brought, and whence 
 they are all distributed ; and by this system they contem- 
 plate the total abolition of all gold and silver currency and 
 accumulated wealth — the root of all evil. And this they call 
 the millennium. A great many of them are Atheists. Atheism 
 is quite common in London — pure Atheism. A gentleman, 
 a clever man and a man of learning, lately told me that 
 Atheism, in his opinion, was the most rational system he 
 
 G 
 
82 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSAIJST. 
 
THE EASEL, THE PULPIT, OR THE PEN ? 83 
 
84 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERS ALIST. 
 
 met with. He said he was quite afraid to be a Christian — 
 Christianity drew such a horrible picture of God and the pros- 
 pects of the human race. " Yet," says he, " I was once a very 
 good, pious Christian, but had less peace of mind then than 
 now." 'Tis a horrible doctrine, Atheism, yet I question if it 
 would do half so much harm to the world as religion has done. 
 There is a lady in London gives public lectures on Atheism, 
 but the open avowal of it is principally confined to the working 
 
 classes One may live very cheap here in Holborn, 
 
 where there are several excellent eating-houses where you 
 get a basin of soup with meat in it and a piece of bread for 
 2d., a dinner — which is a plate of meat and bread — for 3d. 
 I have not yet made a trial of them, but in passing I see 
 the places crowded with hungry customers, and the waiters 
 busy serving. Other places, that make no pretensions to 
 cheapness, are, in my opinion, fully dearer than in Edin- 
 burgh. I have only twice got my dinner that way. I paid 
 once 8d., and another time lOd., for a plate of beef. There 
 are very few potatoes used here, but every man has his pint 
 of beer or porter. On Sundays, before and after service, 
 there is not so much traffic as I have been told. 'Tis only a 
 shop here and there — chiefly provision shops — that are kept 
 open.' 
 
 Before he left Ashton he had written his friend, Peter 
 Borthwick, to see if he could aid him to a means of liveli- 
 hood at Cambridge, where his friend was at that time a 
 student. 
 Downing ' I fear I have very little power to obtain a situation here 
 
 CamiSdge, ^^^ Y^^^ '} Y^^ ^^ jo^ ^"^^^^ gi^'^ me a little more particular 
 account of what sort of one would suit you, you may rely 
 on every exertion which I can make. David Pollok, our old 
 friend, I recommended to a very excellent situation, and he 
 so teased and tormented the patrons by ridiculous delays 
 that my credit is quite lost in that quarter. Yet pray let me 
 hear all particulars, that I may do what I can.' 
 
 Later on, when Borthwick had drifted to the metropolis, 
 
 Kitli Nov. 
 1830. 
 
PETER BOKTHWICK. 85 
 
 where he was afterwards to gain a prominent place, he is 
 again in communication with Smith : — 
 
 ' The period which you allowed me to answer your last 
 letter has so long gone by that I do not know any other way 
 by which I can satisfactorily commend myself to your for- 
 giveness than by detailing to you the whole course of my 
 history since it came, and this were tedious beyond my time 
 
 and space — painful, perhaps, beyond your patience 
 
 I scarcely knew where you were, and should not know how 
 to direct this letter but for the kindness of Miss Stenhouse, 
 
 who proposes to forward it through some of her friends 
 
 Miss Stenhouse tells me that you have some idea of coming 
 to London. I hope you will. I should like very much to 
 know what are your intentions in this matter; perhajDS I 
 might be of some use to you, and if I can, I implore you to 
 believe that to the utmost I will. You perhaps will hardly 
 believe this, because I have not written for so long, but before 
 you judge so give me my trial, and I can bring very many 
 witnesses to prove that I have not been unmindful nor 
 inactive though I have been silent. If you can let me know 
 how you are, and what are your intentions, at all events you 
 will confer on me a great kindness, for, believe me, there is 
 not one of all my friends whom I should so grieve to lose 
 as yourself. I am now resident in London, and, for any- 
 thing which appears just now on the horizon of possibility, 
 am like to remain so for twelve months at least.' 
 
 ' I the rather hasten to write to you (though I have very 2ist Yvk 
 little time to say as much as I could wish) that you are so London, 
 soon to leave Edinburgh. My first object in writing to you 
 is to speak of " a journey to London," which, if I at all 
 rightly understand your position, I would recommend to 
 you. I think there are at least two sources of emolument 
 in London which you could teach to flow — the one in giving 
 instruction in languages, drawing, &c., and the other in 
 painting itself. You remember, perhaps, giving me a picture 
 in water-colours when we parted in Edinburgh. It is very 
 
86 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 much admired by artists and amateurs both at Cambridge 
 and in this centre of excellence in such things, and I am 
 sure that, -with your talents and acquirements in Literature 
 and Arts, you could command the Mammon to yield enough, 
 or more than enough, for the times' need. If you would 
 write to me by return of post I might have it in my power 
 to do something by way of making an opening for you. 
 
 *I am myself in the very midst of uncertainty as it 
 
 regards my future destination I have only to say 
 
 that, while I have bread or the means of getting it, it will 
 be my delight to share the one and the other with you.' 
 
 It says much for both men that, while intellectually they 
 kept steadily travelling towards opposite poles, their friend- 
 ship remained unbroken to the end ; and it is evident from 
 Borthwick's letters that he showed great sympathy for the 
 intellectual vagaries of his friend, and endeavoured to evince 
 an interest in whatever was of vital importance to him. 
 This is observable as we read between the lines, and while 
 James Smith is in an irritable state at Ashton, and ready to 
 carp at his acquaintances and former associates, in the belief 
 that they shun his present companionship, his strictures and 
 complaints are met with tact and good feeling, and a pro- 
 fession of friendship which time did not belie. 
 
 'My wife desires her kindest remembrances to you, and 
 joins me in earnest request that you will write to us. If 
 you come to London, while we have a roof and food we 
 need not say you are welcome heartily to the one and the 
 other.' 
 
 Thus encouraged, we have seen he had gone to London, 
 probably with a view to Art mainly as a means of livelihood, 
 but with his mind full of his doctrine of ' good and evil,' 
 with which he was going to revolutionise the world. He is 
 exuberant over his first success. 
 
 ' I have taken a chapel for lectures, and gave my first last 
 Sunday evening, when I was received with most enthusiastic 
 cheering, and gratified with the hopes — I may say certainty — 
 
IRVING STILL FLOURISHIXG. 87 
 
 of success. My doctrines, which have been coolly received 
 by a parcel of blinded fools elsewhere, are here likely to 
 prevail. I have got many friends already, and every day, I 
 believe, will increase them. Providence has just sent me 
 in the nick of time ; if I had gone when I first proposed it 
 would not have done. I charge one penny only for admis- 
 sion to my lectures, and I believe I will fill the chapel, 
 which holds 500, and perhaps I may give another during 
 the week ; at any rate, I will easily support myself. There 
 are vast numbers of people here ready to receive what I can 
 give them. The church is evidently on its last legs ; several 
 of the clergy have lately petitioned the King to call a general 
 convocation to devise some method of saving it. It would have 
 surprised you to have seen the warm greetings, the clapping 
 of hands with which I was received, whilst at the same time 
 they paid the utmost attention to every sentence of my 
 discourse. I never had such an attentive audience. If I 
 succeed in London, I shall get known in other places, and 
 may take a tour through the provinces, and soon you will 
 see plenty following in the same footsteps ; and if the church 
 can support itself with nothing but bludgeons, it will fall 
 
 immediately I thought you would be anxious to hear 
 
 about me, and therefore I have written sooner than I would 
 otherwise have done ; but I will write you in a week or two 
 again, and give you further information of my proceedings. 
 What you say of Irving I do not fully understand. Irving 
 is as well off as ever, and has a splendid congregation. The 
 hall he preaches in will hold about 1500, and is crammed 
 full of his own people. 
 
 * I have not yet seen Borthwick ; he is travelling about 
 advocating the cause of West India slavery ; I expect him 
 in town soon. I am very comfortable here — have a fine bed- 
 room, finely papered, a clean and soft feather-bed, and a 
 comfortable parlour to sit in. My old landlady, Mrs. G., is 
 on a visit to us at present, so that we are all as we were at 
 Ashton. They all treat me as if I were of the family — mind 
 
88 
 
 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 Coplcy 
 FieKling. 
 
 London, 
 20th Nov. 
 1832. 
 James to 
 Jolin. 
 
 everything I want before I see it myself, &c., so that you 
 need be under no concern about me. See and push the 
 rest on, and I will drive my way, and if possible assist the 
 rest too. 
 
 * C. Fielding is out of town, but his brother, Thales 
 Fielding, received me very frankly, and showed me his 
 own and his brother's portfolios, where there were some 
 splendid drawings. He also introduced me to Robson. I 
 was dazzled with Robson's drawings at first, but when I 
 began to examine them my admiration gave way ; they are 
 very tawdry, stiff, and unnatural ; however, the general effect 
 is capital — the trees of his distant wood are all as we used 
 to make them at school, like parasols standing on top of 
 each other, uncommonly stiff. The finest collection of small 
 cabinet drawings I have seen is that of an artist called 
 Baynes, who lives beside Fielding ; he wants the genius of 
 Fielding, certainly, for effect and splendour of design, but 
 what he does is far more easy and natural. I was recom- 
 mended to him by an architect here, who thought him the 
 foremost of all, but very modest and reserved. There are 
 a number of artists very inferior ; there is one Purser, who 
 paints beautifully in water-colours.' 
 
 He is still, however, relying on his ' mission.' 
 'I am succeeding as well as ever as yet. How long it 
 may continue I can't say. I meet with opposition both from 
 Christians and Infidels. Last Sunday evening I had two 
 Atheists to oppose me. One of them, quite a gentleman (in 
 fact they were both so), pretended to understand perfectly 
 how^ animals could be formed without a God; if you examine 
 
 an egg you will find a little spot in it, &c., &c 
 
 Nothing could be more simple, he said, and if men would but 
 make use of their eyes as they ought to do they would find 
 no difficulties in anything. One old gentleman asked him 
 which was first, the hen or the egg ; the hen, he replied, 
 although he had previously averred that every animal had 
 been eternal. We had some good fun with him, for he was 
 
THE LONDON THEATRES. 89 
 
 very humorous, and went away laughing, saying he was 
 willing to give me the appearance of victory, for I was a 
 useful character in many respects, but cautioned the people 
 
 to beware of believing in a future state There are 
 
 great lots of Atheists here, and their principal argument is Atheists. 
 the existence of evil. The church doctrine, of course, con- 
 firms them, and they scorn the very idea of such a monster 
 as the Christian God, or rather devil. 
 
 ' I have not seen many of the curiosities of London, for 
 want of money to spend upon such things. I have been at 
 one or two of the theatres. You may get into the small 
 theatres, most of which are as good as Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow, for Is. in the pit. Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatres. 
 are 3s. 6d., but they are talking of reducing them to 2s. 6d. 
 I went to Drury Lane one evening; it did not appear to 
 be much larger than our old Glasgow theatres. Sheridan 
 Knowles is playing at Covent Garden, but does not take as 
 an actor. I saw his name advertised to-night in his own 
 play of the Hunclihaclc, which has a good run. Borthwick 
 
 is getting on rarely He is likely to flourish, but Borthwick. 
 
 he is in the Tory interest, and that is a sinking cause. I 
 told you in the letter I wrote per Mr. Brown that a parcel 
 could be conveyed cheap to and from London ; but remember 
 this — that when they arrive here they are sent in carts to 
 their respective directions, and these carts will charge as 
 much as the whole freight. They would charge 2s. 6d. for Parcels, 
 bringing one to me from the shipping, and I could get the 
 parcel itself for perhaps 2s. A pretty large parcel, as big as 
 a family Bible, would cost about 2s., but if you write on the 
 back, " to be left till called for," they will send me a two- 
 penny post letter to advertise me of it, and I can fetch it.' 
 
 ' This monstrous smoke-hole of a place is so larcje Gth siarcii 
 
 1833 
 
 that I cannot go into town without spending several hours james to 
 in walking. I have still been able to live by my preaching, "^''^"' 
 and I have little doubt that it may and will by and bye turn 
 out a good and most respectable cause. Last Sunday I cleared 
 
90 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 25s., the Sunday before 33s.; however, on a wet day it is 
 not so good. Three Sundays ago I had only a remnant of 
 10s. after paying all my expenses. I pay my rent, &c., 
 every Sunday before I come home, and at present I am free 
 of all debt whatsoever in London, with 30s. in my pocket. 
 So you see I am not yet reduced to my last shilling.' 
 
 London was still a wonder to him, and he desires his 
 brother to spend his vacation seeing it. It is interesting to 
 note that both cahs — vulgarised from cabriolet, as he tells us 
 — and omnibuses were novelties to him ! 
 1833. ' For the accommodation of passengers in the town there 
 are vehicles called omnibuses, running along the street every 
 two minutes. They run four or five miles, and take you all 
 that way at a carriage trot for sixpence, doubling it at eleven 
 o'clock at night ; they are most convenient things, and always 
 at hand. I often spend a sixpence that way, which is a great 
 saving both to legs and shoes.' 
 
 He was evidently not accustomed to have money in his 
 pocket, and was further divided between his desire to appear 
 respectable before his more orthodox brother, and to still feel 
 himself under the direct care of Providence. It is probable 
 that his letters have to be read partially in the light of those 
 to whom they were addressed, and whose susceptibilities he 
 almost unconsciously considered. 
 
 *I have got a few acquaintances now, both Scotch and 
 English. Last night I drank tea with a Mrs. Wheeler, a 
 woman of great talent, quite a high-bred aristocrat. She is 
 a regular hearer of mine; she comes with a daughter of 
 
 General B , whom I saw home last evening to a very 
 
 fine residence — so that you see I am not so very degraded as 
 you suspected ; the most of my congregation, however, are 
 decent tradesmen. I had a French Catholic priest hearing 
 me on Sunday last. To-day he bought several of my lectures, 
 which I have published at 3d. a piece. It is scarcely time 
 for them to pay yet, but I have sold several hundreds of 
 each. The doctrine will most assuredly flourish like the 
 
PROVIDENTIALLY PROVIDED! 91 
 
 green bay-tree. Providence is evidently in its favour, and I 
 have seen many special interferences in my own behalf. 
 Once since I came here I was reduced to my last sixpence ; 
 it was the dead of winter, and I was in straits of many 
 kinds. I especially wanted £2 to pay an account. I had 
 nothing. In the very nick of time I received a letter 
 
 from , saying he had come to London and wanted to 
 
 see me. I called that evening, and without me ever asking 
 it, he put two sovereigns into my hand as I was coming off. 
 I had lent him two five years ago, and he had never paid 
 them ; they were just reserved for the time of need. Since 
 I first left Edinburgh I have had five or six deliverances as 
 remarkable as that. I was to have stayed with Borthwick 
 when I came here, but a fortnight before I came he was 
 engaged by the West Indian Committee to advocate their 
 cause through the country. He is now in Scotland making 
 a figure as an orator. He stood for member of Parliament 
 at Evesham, but was cast. Sir Bethal Codrington laid down 
 on the election table one thousand sovereigns to pay his 
 expenses, and told him he might have as much more if he 
 required it, but he failed. I have no doubt he will get into 
 next Parliament. If I had come to London any sooner I 
 would have failed too, and I just left Scotland the very day 
 that Shiloh was put in jail, and now I am preaching in his 
 chapel, but not preaching his doctrine; he will be in jail 
 twelve months yet, according to the sentence, and according 
 to my ways of reckoning I ought to be in difficulties all that 
 while. Trade is very bad here, and the people are quite 
 furious. The unstamped penny newspapers are numerous ; 
 their circulation is immense, and they cannot be put down ; 
 they will put out the others by degrees if the duty is not 
 taken off".' 
 
 He is still amazed at London and its wonders, which he 
 describes to his brother with the usual light and shade. 
 The splendour of the best shops, and the number of men 
 employed, with the difficulty of getting money, and the 
 
92 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 necessity to keep up an appearance at any cost on the part 
 of tradesmen and the commercial classes, with all the attend- 
 ant misery. * I never, till I came to London, heard people 
 deliberately speak of destroying themselves, but here I have 
 met with several.' He then describes w^th satisfaction a 
 new preparation for reviving black clothes, which he had 
 used with success, and is evidently as simple-minded and 
 uninfluenced by the world as when, full of ancient lore and 
 ignorant of life, he rushed off to Ashton to hurry on the 
 millennium. A brilliant graduate at seventeen, he was still 
 at thirty-two unable to accommodate himself to a world that 
 required to be cajoled and petted : he was prepared to suffer 
 the penalty of those who see the beam in the eye of the 
 world, and are constrained to act as occulists regardless of 
 fees. 
 
 'It is not by pampering the prejudices of the public that 
 any good is to be done, for in that case you would never 
 have any improvement. There is a necessity for some going 
 in advance of the age. You need not be afraid of my going 
 too far. There are fifty thousand in London ready to defend 
 any man, go what length he may ; and as for the Govern- 
 ment, they will never look after me. That sort of persecu- 
 tion is all over. As for what you say of God, it looks very 
 ridiculous to me. I have more respect to God than you 
 have, and obey Him more. You pretend to follow old 
 revelation ; I follow the Spirit whithersoever he goeth. 
 You don't follow him at all ; he is far in advance of you. 
 He is teaching doctrines as far before St. Paul's as St. Paul 
 was before Moses, but you think you are safe with St. Paul ; 
 and has not the Jew as good a right to think himself safe 
 with Moses. And as for evidence, I have quite enough to 
 convince me — and that is as much as you have. If the 
 Apostles wrought miracles you did not see them, and though 
 you did see them, they are no evidence : for God says he 
 works miracles to deceive. The fact is that God is in every- 
 thing, and if he has shown himself in a peculiar way in 
 
WORDS HAVE MANY MEAXIXGS. 93 
 
 religion, we are not to infer from that that he has deserted 
 everything else. Religion is merely a department for mani- 
 festations by signs, and it is a department for mystery, riddle, 
 parable, and superstition ; but you mistake its meaning sadly 
 if you think that there is any superior sanctity or cleverness 
 in it ; in fact, it is the sphere of darkness, and all revelation 
 comes from the spirit of mystery and darkness.' He con- 
 tinues characteristically : — 
 
 'But you may follow your own mind on the subject. I 
 shall never reproach you for it. Do not, however, attribute 
 more respect for God to yourself than you possess, nor judge 
 merely by the words of your mouth. Words have many 
 meanings, and, as Dean Swift says, are mere "Avind." An 
 
 old tar, meeting another on the pavement, says : — " D 
 
 you, you b , how are you ? I am glad to see you." The 
 
 other returns the compliment in a similar style. They mean 
 well, however rough and uncouth their language may seem. 
 So do I, and if I sometimes use language which is disre- 
 spectful to God, it is only in appearance. You may ask me 
 what is the use of this appearance. It is quite necessary to 
 correct old errors, for if God be all in all — author of good 
 and evil — devil and God — then all sorts of words and 
 
 epithets apply to him — good and bad It is only 
 
 your false ideas of omnipresence that makes you talk and 
 think as you do, and you imagine you sjDeak very reveren- 
 tially of God when you call him pure, clean, and holy, and 
 would think it blasphemy to talk of God living in dung. If 
 so, then I say you have yet to "know the Lord." The world 
 does not yet know Him, and the only way by which it can 
 come to the knowledge of Him is by " blasphemy." The age 
 of blasphemy is coming, and that will put an end to all 
 schism in religion — for it will show men that God is all in 
 all, and that words are mere wind. There will be a most 
 furious resistance to the Church. Infidelity will triumph. 
 I shall take no hand in it. I don't expect to be long 
 amongst them. The Infidels have a work of their own and 
 
feeling in 
 
 94 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 I have another. I have never joined with infideHty, and 
 never will ; but you may depend upon it, it will turn the 
 Church upside down. The hostility against the Church is 
 i83:i. dreadful. I never see a clergyman in his canonicals on the 
 
 street. They dress like other men, and pass unnoticed. 
 There is judgment coming on them, and if any deserve judg- 
 ment they do ; for they have egregiously departed from the 
 
 spirit of Christianity, whatever their pretences be What 
 
 you say of judgment and providence is ludicrous enough. 
 You say : — "May not God have hardened my heart for holding 
 such opinions ? " This is most unmeaning cant. Were I in 
 adversity, you w^ould call it a judgment ; were I in prosperity, 
 you would call it hardening: whereas the adversity of another 
 man you would call the chastening of the Lord; his prosperity 
 you would call a reward. Your reasoning won't do, and your 
 conjectures are absurd. The Bible says : — " All things hapjDen 
 alike to all — to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth 
 not. If God sends judgments, they are merely for signs, and 
 are known when they come." ' 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A CHANGE OF FROXT THE ' CRISIS ' AND ' PIONEER.' 
 
 Although still seeking to move the religious world by his 
 tongue, the burst of enthusiasm over the ' discovery ' of the 
 'doctrine of good and evil' was beginning to wane, and 
 Smith was beginning to be influenced by the socialism of 
 the time. At no time had the various socialistic theories 
 and systems so great a hold upon the London world — Owen- 
 ism, St. Simonism, and Fourierism all being firmly footed in 
 popular opinion, and having their share of enthusiastic fol- 
 lowers. 
 
 ' I am very glad to see the popular side carry, although it 2sth March 
 will not make the Church a whit more pure. The Dissenters Janios to 
 are, in my opinion, the worst of the whole clerical fraternity. 
 However, it is a step in progress to the total overthrow of 
 old Christianity, or rather Antichrist, the church of division 
 and strife. Men will never be made better by preaching. It 
 is only by improving their circumstances by an equal distri- 
 bution of the produce of labour, and by setting all men to 
 work at some useful occupation. About one-half of the 
 present generation do nothing at all. The rich merely live 
 on the sweat of the poor man's brow. If they were to divide 
 the labour, and take advantage of all the mechanical power 
 in the country, every man might be well provided for. There 
 would be no moral crime if there were no competition in 
 trade, if men constituted one family, and lived upon our 
 public stock. All trading in food, clothing, and lodging 
 (these three) must be abolished. The trading must be con- 
 fined to the fine arts and literature, &c., which will supply 
 
96 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 sufficient stimulus to action as soon as the people are all well 
 educated ; and this will be a species of competition which 
 shall for ever prevent poverty from once more devastating 
 the earth with crime. For if the successes of competitors 
 cannot provide them with more food, or put it in their power 
 to deprive the poor man of his share, they can never be 
 productive of much mischief. It is all vain to talk about 
 the scriptural forms of government for the Church as long as 
 there is such an unjust system of distribution of wealth 
 practised. God works materially and spiritually, and his 
 grace will never produce much consolation in a hungry belly. 
 The kingdom of heaven is within us, not within our heads 
 or hearts only. The Revolt of the Bees was written by a Mr. 
 Morgan, a stationer or paper manufacturer on a large scale, 
 and a man of considerable property. You might have seen 
 his name in the papers lately, when he was said to have 
 offered to endow a professorship in King's College, provided 
 they would submit to certain conditions, and teach such 
 
 doctrines as the Revolt of the Bees contains He is 
 
 a very quiet, inoffensive, mild man, about fifty-five or nearer 
 sixty, and may be very useful among such timid personages 
 as }'ou, who have not the courage to deny the reigning 
 system of evil. But it is a very lucky thing that God 
 Almighty has not made us all alike, for then there would 
 never be any reformation whatsoever. Were we merely to 
 wait till all men were convinced by reason, we should wait 
 to eternity. There is a necessity for some to lead the van 
 and break down the old prejudices and corruptions. I do 
 not ask you to do — I don't want you to do — it; it is generally 
 attended with a sacrifice, but all those must do it whose 
 minds are jorepared by Providence on purpose, who are im- 
 pelled by strong convictions, and whose chief pleasure consists 
 in exposing the old and commending the new mode of poli- 
 tical and social intercourse. And though the opinions and 
 systems of reformers and innovators should not be perfect, 
 what of that ? Did you ever see anything perfect ? Is the 
 
THE CRISIS, 
 
 OR THE CHANCE FROM ERROR AND MISERY TO TRUTH AND HAPPINESS. 
 
 "-■■^i!. 
 
 Desisnof aConununityof 2,000 Persons, founded upon a principle, commended by Plato, Lord Bacon, Sir T. More, cud Robert Ovrca. 
 
 IT rj 07 ALL TntJTHS TfTE M63T IMPORTANT, TIMT TUB CIIAnACTKH OV 
 
 nMPti FOR— vot BY fii'ifTLr. 
 
 Vol.. U. No. 5.] SATuriDAY, Fr.D. 9, 1833.— Edited cr ROBERT OW£N and ROBF-TvT DALE OWEN. [Price 2J. 
 
 DXSIGN FOR A COMMUNITY. - 
 The above plate which no<v replaces thai of the Gray's Inn 
 Road Instituiion, represents a design of a square building, for 
 the acccmmodation of a Society of one Uiousand persons, com- 
 bining on the principle of common property, joint-labour, and 
 united expenditure. The area of ground occupied by the 
 buildings, promenades, and gardens of the establishment would 
 be about tliirty-three acres; that of the enclosed quadrangle 
 Iwenty-lwo acres ; nearly three times as large as Russell Square. 
 
 The general plan is one ^viih wliich our readers are wel' 
 acquainted. It is calculated to afford lo the inmates the ad- 
 vantages at once of society and retirement, of lo^vn and of a 
 country residence. 
 
 Various modifications of the plan have befcn, from time to 
 time,- suggested. Instead of a comm.unity of common property 
 some have proposed, as a first step at least, a society of united 
 expenditure only, to be formed by families or individuals of. 
 moderate but certain incomes. It has been estimated by those 
 who have given much attention to the subject, that if four hun- 
 dred families, each having at command an income of £100 a 
 year, would unite their means, the result to each would be the 
 possession of social and domestic advantages such as cannot, 
 under the individual S}stera, be obtained for less than £600 a- 
 year ; and that, if we suppose families with £500 a-year uniting 
 their incomes, the result to each would be advantages equal to 
 those of an individual establishment of jC5,000 a-year. 
 
 No doubt there are many modifications under which the 
 plan raiglst ba advantageously attempted ; and, in the progress 
 of liuDiau eiXDis, one or oilier of lliese must sooa be Uied. 
 
 The numbers on the plate refer to its separate parts, ajid will 
 be understood by tlie following explanation >— 
 
 EXPLANATION OF THE PARTS NUMntnTD OF Tilt; TLATE. 
 
 1 GN-ninntiii!ns or covered places for eserciae, attached to the 
 
 Schools find Infi-.Tnary. 
 
 2 Conservatory, in the riiidst of Gnr.lens, bot^nicr.lly nrrnn-eir. 
 
 3 Baths, wRrni rnd cold, of which there are four for tJie Males, 
 
 and four for llie Females. 
 
 4 Dining Halls, with Kitchens, &c. bcner.th them. 
 
 5 Angle Buildings, occupied by the Sclicols for Inf^ffl, Children, 
 
 find Youths, and tlie Infirmary; on tlio ground floors tu'o 
 Conrersntion-rooms for Adulu. 
 
 6 Libmrv, Detached Readin;; Rooms. Bookbiadtrf, Printing 
 
 Otfice, Sec. 
 T Ball room and Music rooms. 
 8 Tl;calre for Loctr.rcs, Exhibitions, Discussions, &c. with 
 
 Lnboratory, Small Librniy, &c. 
 p Museum, witJi Library of Description and Reference, Rooms 
 "for preparins; Specimens, &:c. 
 
 10 Tlie Brew-hou.s9s, Bake-houses, \\'ash-hoii.'?.>s. Laundries. 
 
 t<.c. nrranged round the Bnses of Oie Towers. 
 
 11 Tl:« Refectories for the i!if;u-.ls and rliildien are on each s;dt> 
 
 of the VesUbules of the Dinino: Halls. 
 
 12 The Illuminators of tho KEtab'.i.sImiPnt, Clock-towpiy, nnd 
 
 Observatories, and from tjie elevatpd s-mnaits of wliich all 
 tlip smoke and vitiated air of the buildiujs ii discharged into 
 tlip atmospliere. 
 
 13 Suites of adult sittinjr-rooms and chambers. 
 
 14 Suites of Chambers, which may he oosilv and quicUy m»de of 
 
 cnv dimensions required ; Dormitories fjr the Unmarried and 
 Children. 
 
 15 Esplanade one hundred feet wide, about tvzcWo feet above l.:e 
 
 natural surface. 
 
 16 Paved Footpath. ^ 
 
 17 The Arcado and its Terrace, pivinf both « covered an;, an 
 
 open communication with ov.->ry part of the buildin;;. 
 10 Sub-way leadinj to iho Kilchci':, &c. and jb^no; which moat, 
 vepreta'bles, coals, ^^r. are conveyed to the Stores, and iluiit 
 ocd refuse brouL'ht out. 
 
 H 
 
loth Mav 
 183-1. 
 
 98 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 law of Moses perfect — would it do for the present age — was 
 it very agreeable, just, or moral for any age? Why, then, 
 should you expect perfection in anything else. 
 
 ' The Pioneer belongs to a Mr. Morrison — a young man from 
 Birmingham. It was the first paper that took the cause of 
 Derby ^ in hand, and from that and the spirit of the writing, 
 it has taken the lead of all the unstamped. It has now 
 increased to 30,000 — the greatest circulation of any paper in 
 the kingdom, excepting the Penmj Magazine. The article you 
 allude to respecting Blackwood was concocted by Morrison 
 and myself, but written by him. He generally writes in 
 blank verse — rather an original style. I have always one 
 and sometimes two articles in the Pioneer , but have no share 
 in the paper. I get £\ per week for what I write. The 
 paper is not yet firmly established, but we have some hope 
 of making it standard, and then I think I shall be able 
 
 to make something more of it My lectures go on 
 
 as usual. We are trying in the Pioneer to bring in the 
 religious world, and we are catching them fast.' 
 
 In a letter at this time we get a peep at the desperation 
 of the effort made by the brothers to maintain an appearance 
 of ' respectability,' and yet the real poverty and distress that 
 permeated the large family that the want of worldly capacity 
 of the father had thrown on the elder brother's hands, with- 
 out stamina or proper training for the labour of life. 
 
 ' I received yours only yesterday. I have been at Graves- 
 end for a few days, just for my health, which is very bad. 
 I have been troubled with a nervous fever, brought on by 
 exertion and anxiety, for this is a most distressing time, and 
 I can assure you I was none the better of the news you sent 
 me. I am sorry for Thomas, but at present I can only see 
 one way for him if he is willing to take it, and that is to 
 learn what we call composition or compositing — that is type- 
 setting. Were he a compositor, I could secure employment 
 to him whether I was employed myself or not, but it will 
 ^ The Derby operatives' turn-out. 
 
RUNNING THE ' PIONEEK.' 1)9 
 
 take him two or three months to learn, and the question is 
 how is he to learn. It would do me an immense deal of i" '"'^' 
 mischief if he were coming here at present, for my situation 
 is becoming every day more precarious, and a storm is 
 gathering around me, and all the money I can gather is at 
 present in request, though I live in a little bedroom. Were 
 you to take him for the summer, and merely get him initi- 
 ated into the art at one of the printing offices in Perth — such 
 as Dewar's — you might put a very good face upon the thing, 
 and say that he merely wanted to learn the art, expecting to 
 be of use to me in London, &c. This would relieve me of 
 what at present I cannot bear, and prevent me from remov- 
 ing and taking more expensive lodgings, for I must have a 
 room to myself or go to wreck instantly. A quick com- 
 positor can make £2 a week, and a guinea a week can 
 be made with great ease ; and if he be sober he is sure 
 to succeed, and having some slight knowledge of languages 
 may become what is called a reader — that is, a corrector of 
 the press — or a reporter, &c. I am certain that Thomas, were 
 he merely sober, would never more feel want. But I should 
 not suffer him to come and learn here — it would do me harm. 
 There is a respect paid me on account of my education and 
 my unknown origin, relationships, &c., which in my present 
 predicament it would be better to keep up. Owen's Institu- owen. 
 tion is nearly down — I am not expecting it to live out 
 this month. The Pioneer is attacked by formidable enemies, 
 who are resolved to crush it, and Lord Althorpe has publicly 
 declared in the House on Monday night that he is determined 
 to suppress the unstamped. ^Ve are all here as grave as 
 seniors — Morrison, poor soul, is quite sad, and talking of 
 the crisis approaching, but determined to brave it out. As 
 for me, all my strength seems to be in my weakness, which 
 makes me somewhat indifferent to consequences. I attacked 
 the leaders of the Consolidated Union a few weeks ago, and 
 this week I have assailed one of them again. The first 
 caused Owen and me nearly to quarrel, and this I have 
 
100 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERS ALLST. 
 
 not yet sent forth from the compositors' hands. I am obliged 
 to do it. Morrison and I are ohjects of attack and private 
 malice with them, and we are forced, in defence, to make 
 reprisals. Owen's charity is for bearing with everything, 
 and yet it won't bear with me in defending myself.' 
 
 Although this is the first notice in his private correspond- 
 ence of his connection with Owen, he has been really in 
 close touch with him since the beginning of 1833, when the 
 Crisis, at that time edited by Robert Owen and his son 
 Robert Dale Owen, jointly, was taken in hand by B. D. 
 Cousins. This was the publisher with whom Smith remained 
 in close friendship through many ventures. His lectures 
 were delivered on Sundays in the Charlotte Street Institu- 
 tion, and were afterwards republished in the Crisis. The 
 first of which we have a note was delivered on 2nd June 1833, 
 and entitled 'Community.' It is advertised in the Crisis 
 (which has now been changed to ' under the patronage of 
 Robert Owen ') as ' delivered at the Surrey Institution, and 
 at the Charlotte Street Institution,' and also as 'printed 
 uniform with the Antichrist.' The latter, formerly de- 
 scribed as published in parts, has now reached the dignity 
 of a volume : price 4s. 6d., boards, or in 16 numbers, 3d. 
 Antichrist, each. ' Antichrist, or Christianity Reformed, being a series 
 of discourses written and delivered by the Rev. J. E. Smith, 
 M.A., in which is demonstrated from the Scriptures, in 
 opposition to the prevailing opinion of the whole religious 
 M'orld, that evil and good are from one source ; Devil and 
 God one Spirit ; and that the one is merely manifested to 
 make perfect the other.' 
 
 It is right to say that he may have outlived these as 
 most other of his opinions, for we learn from his brother at 
 his death : — ' The Crisis and the Antichrist are no more, 
 
 unless Mrs. G has retained some copies, but James told 
 
 her and Cousins to destroy all the remaining copies.' At the 
 same time, it is probable he merely considered his peculiar 
 expression of opinion as unsuited to the many, and dangerous 
 
DERBY OPERATIVES STRIKE. 101 
 
 in their hands. His addresses at the Institution were on such 
 practical subjects as ' Education,' and if he did also speak 
 on * Prophecy/ it was with the practical common sense that 
 came like a breath of fresh air through his most paradoxical 
 utterances. That he had obtained a considerable influence 
 over Robert Owen at this time is apparent from the letter 
 dated Manchester, 22nd August 1833, to the Secretary of 
 the Exchange. After detailing his success : — ' I cannot be 
 with you on Sunday, but Mr. Smith will do all that is 
 necessary in London ; and I am much more beneficially 
 occupied for the great events before us in this district for 
 the present. I hope to be with you on the Sunday follow- 
 ing.* Lectures at other times appeared to be delivered 
 alternately, morning and evening, by Owen and Smith. This 
 appears to have been the point of departure in the Crisis 
 however. For some considerable time the striking heading of 
 a ' Design for a community of 2000 persons, founded upon a 
 principle commended by Plato, Lord Bacon, Sir T. More, 
 and R. Owen,' with the bold sub-title to the Crisis^ * Or the 
 change from error and misery to truth and happiness,' had 
 disappeared in favour of a plain bold type, with the sub-title, 
 'And National Co-operative Trades' Union and Equitable 
 Labour Exchange Gazette.' And now, immediately following, 
 on 7th September 1833, the first number of vol. iii. appears, 
 which was under the editorship of Smith. The heading 
 represents the rational and irrational arrangements of society, 
 and was probably from the same graver as afterwards pro- 
 duced the headings for the Family Herald — Smith's own. 
 The friction to which he alludes, with the Executive of the Grand 
 Consolidated Union, was caused by an article in the True coSidated 
 Sun, which cast reflections on those who raised subscriptions S^oreat"'''" 
 for the Derby operatives outside their own Union. In reply, f/jfaud^"'^ 
 he says : — ' Did we permit such an article as this to pass our i7th May 
 notice, we would be doing an act of injustice to the parties crisis. 
 upon whom the aspersion is cast ; and we should also be 
 encouraging the True Sun in the publication of matter which 
 
102 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 is calculated to sow divisions among the people, and ulti- 
 mately to injure its own character for truth and impartiality.' 
 The True Sim handsomely referred to the article in the 
 Pioneer, and made the necessary explanations. 
 
 "While taking a prominent part in sociaHstic movements, 
 and deeply interested in their prosperity as a means of rais- 
 ing the poor, James Smith had yet no intellectual or moral 
 sympathy with the multitude — whom he looked upon as 
 partially developed animals to be enlightened — and still 
 less with the materialistic side of the Owenite creed. He 
 had translated a volume of St. Simon, which we find thus 
 
 St. Simon, advertised in the Crisis of 11th January 1834: — '^N'ew 
 Christianity, by St. Simon. Illustrated with a coloured 
 engraving representing a female in the St. Simonian costume. 
 Translated into English by the Rev. J. E. Smith, M.A.' 
 On the 25th January he gives an account in the Crisis of 
 a discussion between representatives of the two systems. 
 
 'On Friday the 17th, a meeting took place at the Burton 
 Rooms for the purpose of comparing the St. Simonian and 
 
 Seeeite- Owenian systems. Dr. Pratt and Mr. Owen both gave a 
 development of their peculiar views; but we were rather 
 disappointed at the result, as neither the resemblances nor 
 
 the differences were laid distinctly before the meeting 
 
 The two parties are decidedly opj^osed upon one department, 
 and that is the doctrinal — for the one is the extreme of 
 faith, the other the opposite extreme. The faith of the St. 
 Simonians, however, is not confined to Christianity. Upon 
 this department it is desirable that the public were in- 
 formed ; for the one might engage the religious world, whilst 
 the other engages the infidel world.' He suggests their fill- 
 ing up their mutual deficiencies by amalgamation. 
 
 He had been introduced to St. Simonism by Mrs. "V\Tieeler, 
 the mother of Rosina, Lady Lytton, who writes a letter also 
 to the Crisis on 9th June 1833, sending a translation of an 
 ' Extract from a weekly journal, edited by women at Paris 
 —"The AVomen of the Future."' 
 
HIS RISKY POSITION. lOo 
 
 It is clear that while thus editing an Owenite journal, he 
 took considerable liberty with its views, and valued it not 
 unless it could fight all comers in the open field. At the 
 same time his judicial and paradoxical mind found that he 
 was always absolutely consistent with himself ^ no matter 
 what position he took up. 
 
 'Your advice, I daresay, is all well meant, but all in vain. .lamcsto 
 I must just do what I feel impelled to do. It will tend to sotiWay 
 good at last. If some must suffer for truth, why should I ^^^^' 
 be exempted more than another. You seem to be entirely 
 ignorant of me and my opinions, and I am now tired ex- 
 plaining them to any one. I have considered all the views 
 of things you point out to me, and have not overlooked the 
 character of the Whigs nor the present times. In my lec- 
 tures you will find your own remarks upon the practical 
 talents of the Tories. But if you imagine that Old Toryism 
 will return again, I can tell you at once you are mistaken. 
 The Whig and the Tory may agree and form a new party, 
 but that will only increase the number and power of the 
 Eadicals, who are the least practical of all, and quite unfit 
 to conduct the Government for a week. They are merely 
 levellers, and are now in their element. They will force the 
 other two on to more liberal measures, and then, perhaps, all 
 three may agree against the new world. But I am certain 
 that an entirely new system is necessary, and will come; 
 but it cannot come until the people are taught it, and we 
 only want a Liberal Government to permit us to teach. I 
 am not afraid of Lord Althorpe nor the Whigs. I am quite 
 safe as a w^riter. The publisher is the one who runs the 
 risk. It is as a lecturer, principally, that I run a risk ; but 
 this blow-up of the Cabinet will give us all a lift. The 
 Union must divide — at present they are composed of two 
 great parties, believers and infidels — and I conceive that 
 Owen and I must separate to provide fuel for each. We 
 shall cause considerable stir for a few months, and, perhaps, 
 a more close union will be the consequence. But at present 
 
104 
 
 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 he thinks he can lead tlie people — he is not aware of the 
 odium which attaches itself to his name. He is too full of 
 himself to see it, and we have always been suppressing his 
 name and his articles as much as possible. He cannot brook 
 this any longer, and seeing that he cannot get everything 
 his own way, he is going to start a new paper under the 
 name of the Union Gazette, which he expects will swallow 
 up all others. He means to work behind the curtain, and 
 yet to be dictator. Now our move is to prevent this 
 dictatorship, for we know it cannot be tolerated. Of course 
 we shall be obliged to let out the secret, and, when let out, 
 all the provinces will become discontented, and the greater 
 part of the city. In doing so we shall have all the religious 
 portion of the Unions, and a great proportion of the Infidel 
 portion, along with us, and may effect a reconciliation, for 
 Owen, although he has done an immense deal of good, is causing 
 division by intermeddling with the Union, which would go 
 on better without him — but all things are, no doubt, ordered 
 well. Whatever you may think of the Unions, it is my 
 opinion that they will entirely change the Government and 
 trade of the country ; but children must creep before they 
 walk ; the people must learn by experience, and by reading 
 and thinking. They are evidently improving every day, and 
 will shortly be able to (do) many things in a very dexterous 
 manner. Every strike, every failure is teaching them 
 wisdom. It is owing to this particular crisis in which I am 
 placed that I shall be very sorry to be burdened with more 
 on my mind at present, for I have an inward hope that I 
 shall weather the storm, and be the better for it ever after. 
 Yet my anxiety is great, because I do not know how low I 
 
 may be brought before I rise again In the course of 
 
 one month I think I shall be able to tell pretty well whether 
 any new opening is likely to be made for me. The new 
 Gazette comes out next Saturday, and we shall soon tell 
 what is to be its fate. It will stun us for a while, no doubt, 
 but we shall try to recover. 
 
CONTROVERSY WITH OWEX. 105 
 
 *0n Wednesday I received a letter from the "Society of 
 Civilisation and Progress " in Paris, constituting me its cor- 
 responding member in London. It is one of the finest 
 societies in Paris, has daily lectures on all scientific subjects, 
 and publishes a weekly journal and a monthly review. I 
 was not a little pleased, I assure you, at the honour.' 
 
 The breach with^' Owen, thus pointed to, kept widening, 
 and was fomented from outside. An article in the Pioneer 
 called forth a protest from ' Three Opponents of Division,' 
 and demanded a reply in the Crisis. As an ' opponent of 
 division ' he thought it better not to insert the letter, although 
 he replies to it. The article was an expression of the 
 editor's religious views, and the Crisis remarks : — ' The evil 
 of controversy does not lie in the act of controversy itself, 
 
 but in the manner Probably the greater proportion of 
 
 the readers of the Pioneer were pleased with the declaration ; 
 probably it was necessary that the editor's mind should be 
 known upon that subject. He has much correspondence 
 amongst the religious class of Unionists, and a declaration of 
 that nature may tend to allay their prejudices, and reconcile 
 them to act in concert with the Union at large, when they 
 find in it men who have some sympathy with their dearest 
 
 and best-cherished feelings A liberal-minded man 
 
 can bear contradiction, and we have no doubt that Mr. Owen 
 
 viewswith perfect complacency the article in question 
 
 He himself has publicly avowed his own religious creed ; why 
 should not the editor of the Pioneer avow his.' 
 
 The next step was an article in the Crisis of 12th July 
 1834, attacking the Executive of the Grand Consolidated. 
 It refers to the warning issued months before to them to 
 improve their mode of transacting business, and points out 
 that if such counsel had been taken, the malversations dis- 
 covered on the part of one of the Executive, who had bolted 
 with a large sum of money to New South Wales, could not 
 have occurred. In this article — which is most characteristic 
 — reference is made to the man's moral character, and a 
 
106 SUEPIIEKD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 claim is entered -wliicli is commonly denied in the present 
 ilay : — 'A private character may do as he has a mind ; he 
 may drink, debauch, and satiate his soul with every species 
 of surfeit; he is responsible only to himself, and we shall 
 not reproach him ; M^e shall only avoid the company of the 
 wretch, and leave him to find the level of his own moral 
 rank ; but the vices of a public character ought never to be 
 overlooked ; he is not his own master ; neither his body, his 
 mind, nor his time is his own ; he is the servant of the 
 public, who have the same right to criticise his private 
 morals that a wife has to investigate the amorous intrigues 
 of her husband.' 
 
 The character of this article called forth a severe rebuke 
 from Robert Owen ; and, indeed, the pages in which his 
 letter and the editor's rejoinder appear together point to a 
 wholly different view of the principles they were jointly 
 advocating. Owen observes : — ' You have done great injury 
 to that paper by allowing sentiments to appear in it alto- 
 gether in opposition to the principles on which it was 
 
 established The principles are in direct opposition 
 
 to all the systems of fraud, deception, and violence which 
 have hitherto kept the human race ignorant, poor, disunited, 
 uncharitable, and miserable ; but principles of genuine kind- 
 ness and charity for all individuals, because they have been 
 necessarily made the victims of these ignorant and vicious 
 systems, and therefore, under all circumstances, objects of 
 pity and commiseration only, and never of anger and un- 
 charitable invective. The individuals of the Executive who 
 may have erred have done so from ignorance, which ignor- 
 ance the Government of the country in which they were born 
 and educated ought, if any i:)arties ought, to be responsible 
 for.' He continues to speak of the ' ignorant and vile lan- 
 guage and insinuations,' and alludes to it as a ' thoughtless 
 and vicious article.' 
 
 In reply, the editor says : — ' We have been once more 
 censured, and that severely, for reprehending the Executive. 
 
VICE AND THE INDIVIDUAL. 107 
 
 We have been told that we are ignorant of human nature, 
 and ignorant of the doctrines of the new system, &c. ; and 
 we have also been told by some of our rational friends that 
 it is inconsistent with the leading principle of our new views 
 of society, namely, "that man is the creature of circum- 
 stances," to pass severe censures upon the public or private 
 conduct of any individual. We believe there is no indi- 
 vidual living more disposed to palliate the offences of our 
 fellow-men than we ourselves are, or more willing to hear a 
 justification of the accused, or more firmly convinced that 
 man is the creature of the circumstances in which he is 
 placed, or of the organisation and education with which he 
 has been gifted. But, at the same time, we are also firmly 
 decided in our preference of virtue to vice, truth to false- 
 hood, and honesty to dishonesty, anxious to promote the 
 growth of the one and the destruction of the other. 
 
 ' Then how are we to proceed to destroy the latter ? 
 
 By encouraging the good and reprobating the bad ! 
 
 If we do not express our abhorrence, our detestation of all 
 immorality, falsehood, and knavery, pray what foundation 
 can we have for the hope of an amelioration of the moral 
 character of mankind? We cannot place bad men in the 
 circumstances of wealth to make them honest or respectable, 
 therefore we must place them in the circumstances of cen- 
 sure, and censure is a very powerful circumstance with every 
 spirited and honourable mind. Therefore, it is not we who 
 depart from the doctrine of circumstances in reprobating 
 the dishonesty of a convicted dehnquent, but our censors, 
 who ought to know, if they were acquainted with human 
 nature, that if man be a creature of circumstances he is the 
 creature of rebuke, which is a moral rod of chastisement for 
 moral off'ences until they can be prevented by the ameliora- 
 tion of the external circumstances Yet, in repro- 
 bating the conduct of the knave, we disavow all personality 
 as much as the most charitable and indulgent. We condemn 
 the principle only ; but how can we attack the principle 
 
108 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 unless we attack tlie individual in ^vllom it resides.' He 
 proceeds with his usual analogical skill to enforce this 
 view — asserts that ' AVhat Mr. Owen's private opinions are it 
 is impossible for us to say, for he has often told us that he 
 has never yet found a man -svlio understood them,' and then 
 turns Owen's letter against himself with skilful and ruthless 
 dexterity. ' There is as much abuse in branding the char- 
 acter of a man with ignorance as with error, if the two are 
 merely cause and effect.' He justly continues : — ' We have 
 a serious struggle before us — a struggle which requires every 
 species of virtue to encounter — and they wdio undertake the 
 work of the public ought to combine, as much as possible, 
 the moral and intellectual power from which we seek for 
 deliverance.' 
 
 In the following number he returns to the charge in answer 
 to great violence of language in the Official Gazette of the 
 Union. 'AVe are sorry to be under the necessity of once 
 more alluding to the unfortunate collision of principle which 
 has taken place between ourselves and other instructors of 
 the people ; but as the solution of the c^uestion is a matter 
 of some importance, in a moral and practical point of view, 
 we must once more revert to the disagreeable subject of 
 James Hall (the delinquent) and the Executive.' After 
 again calling attention to their having stultified themselves 
 in their reply, and in their attempt to hide the true state of 
 matters, ' We conclude by saying, that if the Executive had 
 kept their books in a business-like manner, and regularly pub- 
 lished an account of the receipts and disbursements, they might 
 have retained the confidence of the people ; but their secrecy 
 and want of method were their ruin. This is their fault ; we 
 do not blame the colleagues of Hall for Ids private roguery.' 
 
 On 9th August, in referring to a further notice in the Official 
 Gazette^ we get a further insight into his influence : — ' We are 
 officially informed in the Official Gazette that we are " the 
 principal writer in the Pioneer ; that we are paid for writing 
 in the Pioneer ^ and, of course, write for the Crisis gratis ; 
 
THE 'crisis' and 'PIONEER.' 109 
 
 that the Crisis and Pioneer are one and not two, and that 
 
 that is the reason why they compliment each other." 
 
 And what matters it, though we are not aware of its being 
 true, and though we can positively assert that the editor of 
 the Pioneer never wrote but one article, and that not an 
 editorial one, in the Crisis, and that the articles in the Crisis 
 and Pioneer, respecting the Executive, were not written by 
 the same individual — what matters it, we say : here is an 
 official notice to the contrary They have now, how- 
 ever, the good sense to suppress this motto of Truth witliout 
 mystery, with which they set out, and have adopted in its 
 stead. Workmen, stand hy your Order — that is, never expose 
 the rogueries and immoralities of your own class, but merely 
 show up the rulers and regulators to detestation for their 
 love of power and their charitable concealment of corrup- 
 tion. Well, we wish them God-speed in all their charitable 
 intents and purposes ; and we trust that, in the exercise of 
 that charity which thro^vs the mantle of concealment on the 
 iniquities of associates, they may not be throwing obstacles 
 in the way of the advancement of honesty, which has no 
 other hope of preferment but by the exposure of villainy.' 
 
 This was clearly not ' the beginning of the end,' but the end 
 itself. On 23rd August Kobert Owen published his valedic- 
 tory address in the last number of the Crisis, to which Smith 
 added a reply. The ending of the mutual labours of the 
 two colleagues was not without bitterness; and as Owen 
 could not be supposed to know that his comrade looked 
 upon even his ' final ' system as a transitionary one, we 
 cannot wonder at the great socialist leader looking upon 
 James Smith as somewhat of a traitor in the camp. The 
 same great restless brain that sucked the fruits of the new 
 religions could not be] expected to have more regard for the 
 New Systems, when they had yielded up to him all that 
 seemed useful. The same intellect that had divided the 
 followers of John Wroe now proceeded to break up Owen- 
 ism, in the very opposite plane of human thought. 
 
1834 
 Crist 
 
 110 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 Mv. Owen did not read tlie signs of the times as correctly 
 as his quondam colleague and associate. He writes : — 
 23rd Augn<i ' Xlic great " crisis " of human nature will be this week 
 passed. The system under which man has hitherto lived 
 dies a natural death, and another assumes its place. The 
 accursed system of the old Avorld of ignorance, of poverty, of 
 oppression, of fear, of crime, and of misery, this week — this 
 memorable week in the annals of man's history — dies for. 
 ever. The delegates of the British and Foreign Association 
 of Industry and Knowledge, called especially from all parts 
 of the kingdom to this great council, held, during the last 
 sixteen days in the metropolis of the most civilised nation of 
 the earth, to consider in what manner the awful crisis in 
 which industry and knowledge were involved should ter- 
 minate, have, by their wisdom and firmness, now declared 
 unanimously to all people that the change from this pande 
 monium of wickedness and lies shall not be by violence or 
 by fraud, nor yet by any of the arts or weapons of the 
 expiring old world, but that it shall be through a great 
 moral revolution of the human mind, directed solely by 
 
 truth, by charity, and by kindness Men of all 
 
 nations and colours rejoice with us in this great event, for 
 the certain deliverance from all human wickedness and folly 
 is near at hand ! Kegret not that this Crisis now expires, 
 for it dies at its appointed period, to be succeeded by the 
 New Moral World, in which truth, industry, and knowledge 
 will for ever reign triumphant. For truth is above virtue 
 
 and religion The Ci'isis paper was established by 
 
 me to develop the errors of the system under which all the 
 
 transactions of mankind have been conducted, and 
 
 to destroy the system The Crisis has succeeded in 
 
 effecting these objects The Neio Moral World will 
 
 supersede the Crisis, as was originally intended, as soon as 
 the period of time required to advance from the old to the 
 new world should be passed. As soon, therefore, as the 
 arrangements can be completed, the New Moral World will 
 
'crisis' and 'new moral world.' Ill 
 
 appear to take the place of the Crisis. The Shepherd, as 
 appears by its announcement, will be a paper unconnected 
 with the "social system," while the New Moral World is 
 intended to be a paper in which one sentence shall not be in 
 opposition to another. The fundamental principles upon 
 which the New Moral World will be based being laws of 
 nature, form a moral science which, like physical science, is 
 at once destroyed by the admission of contradictions or 
 inconsistencies.' Referring to this article the editor says : — 
 ' We should, out of pure respect, have published it without 
 any remarks, had it not contained some unkind allusions to 
 ourselves and some false statements, which oblige us to say 
 a few words in our own defence. We are very glad to hear 
 that the object for which the Crisis was originally published 
 is gained, and that the prospect which now presents itself 
 
 before our worthy friend is so cheering ; but when 
 
 we are told that the circulation of the Crisis has diminished 
 on account of the introduction of heterogeneous matter — 
 sometimes in unison with, and sometimes opposed to, his 
 views — we are told what is directly false in fact, and full of 
 mystery withal. The Crisis never was better than it has 
 been in our hands. It came to us a lean and hacrsrard- 
 looking star\eling, and we reared it to manhood and respect- 
 ability. When it came into Mr. Cousins' office, the circula- 
 tion was about 1250. It had previously been conducted by 
 Mr. Owen and his son ; but it was dying so rapidly that 
 
 Robert Dale Owen made a present of it to Mr. Cousins 
 
 At its first appearance in 1832 it made its debut 
 
 under very prosperous circumstances. But this was merely 
 an illusion, and the readers, or subscribers, formed but a 
 
 small fraction of the number of copies printed The 
 
 sale of the work was a regular descent from the first week 
 downwards to the time that Mr. Cousins began to publish 
 and Mr. Smith's lectures ber;jan to be introduced. Mr. Smith Failure of 
 
 . . . Exchange. 
 
 and Mr. Cousins began together ; and since that time it has 
 had a regular ascent until the failure of the Exchanf:je and 
 
112 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERBALIST. 
 
 the late disorganisation of tlie unions ; and now the 
 
 Crisis is left by us in better condition than we found it.' 
 After more explanatory and personal matter, he concludes : — 
 * The little quibbles with Mr. Owen are not to be under- 
 stood as personal ; we entertain the kindest feelings towards 
 him. We have always received the greatest personal kind- 
 ness from him, and hope to preserve the mutual friendship 
 to the last. The petty riots we have sometimes kicked up 
 have arisen wholly from the liberty we have taken of think- 
 ing for ourselves ; and we much doubt if Mr. Owen could 
 find another editor who thinks for himself, and preserves a 
 more respectful and friendly deportment towards him.' 
 
 Thus ended the public connection of James Smith with 
 the great socialist, which he described, when proceeding, in 
 the following letter to his brother, dated ' 1st August, the 
 day of Xegro emancipation ' : — 
 Ij* Aug:ust ( J ii^iQ week sent in my resignation to Owen's party, and 
 James to shall now be on the look-out for another place for preaching. 
 It is probable I am now nearly done with the Infidels, and I 
 have learned a good deal from them ; but, if I had learned 
 nothing more, I have learned to look with complacency on all 
 sects, finding quite as much virtue in one as another. I shall 
 most probably be back to the Believing again. I have had a 
 message sent me from the Lord lately to go to preach to the 
 Jews, and to go to a Captain AVoodley in London and tell 
 him to provide a place for me. What may be the meaning 
 of all this I can't say yet, but the same woman through 
 whom it came was sent to me when I was preaching to the 
 Infidels in the borough. She came into the chapel, mounted 
 up into the pulpit, and said she was ordered to take possession 
 of it, for the Lord would take that pidpit from me and I 
 should not have another for some time. The next Sunday 
 my congregation diminished one-half, and I soon after w^as 
 obliged to give up the place, and I have not had a pulpit 
 since. I don't expect the Crisis to stand above; three weeks, 
 and then I shall send you all the remainder. Owen is 
 
OWEN'S MAGNANIMITY. 113 
 
 falling off fast, but is as sanguine as ever — if he has no 
 religious faith, he has got more than any other man of co- 
 operative faith. He and I have been battling a little in the 
 Crisis, but very good friends apparently for all that.' 
 
 It is pleasing to be able to add the following allusion to 
 the Shepherd from the New Moral World of 13th January 
 1838 :— 
 
 * We invite the attention of our readers to an article on 
 the "Religion of the New Moral World'' by the able editor 
 of the Shepherd. There is manifested throughout the paper 
 such an air of sincere belief in the principles advocated, of 
 disinterested devotion to the best interests of the human 
 family, withal such a kindly spirit, that it well deserves the 
 attentive perusal and thoughtful deliberation of our friends 
 and readers. We promise it both on our own parts, and 
 shall, so soon as our numerous avocations permit us leisure, 
 revert to the subject. Mr. Smith is either right or wrong 
 upon the subject at issue ; if right, ive shall be benefited by 
 the discussion ; if Avrong, he will be benefited by it ; and, 
 therefore, on both sides good grounds exist for its con- 
 tinuance. We take this opportunity of drawing the atten- 
 tion of our readers to the Shepherd, as a paper containing 
 many strikingly original and useful papers, and calculated 
 eminently to advance the best interests of man.' 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 'the shepherd,' or universalism. 
 
 We now enter upon the most remarkable era in the life of 
 Smith, when he started the periodical that was to embod}^ 
 his views of life, and deatli, and all things, and to give his 
 philosophy ' a local habitation and a name.' 
 
 Ko doubt his ' System of !N'ature ' developed as he pro- 
 ceeded ; but he still started with very definite views, which 
 were expanded as his mind rose to ' the height of his 
 great argument,' and drew the then science, religion, and 
 philoso})hy witliin the range of his intellect. In his third 
 volume he describes his organ as 'conducted on the 
 principles of Universal Analogy.' Further, he terms it ' a 
 critico-theological, social, and miscellaneous periodical, con- 
 ducted upon the principles of Universal Faith, or Pantheism.' 
 
 It was not until 9th Sept. 1837 that he changed the last 
 name to Universalism^ which it afterwards retained. A 
 ' Pantheist,' properly speaking, he was not. At first reading 
 over this exposition of his views, we are amazed at the 
 extent as well as the accuracy of his knowledge. The mind 
 that seemed to be wholly involved in biblical examination 
 and abstruse calculations, was really in its normal condition 
 a practical, keen, investigating intellect, with a strong grasp 
 of the science of the time. Consequently, if his intellect was 
 markedly analogical, it was not without abundant facts in all 
 the fields of thought from which to draw his comparisons 
 and illustrate his views. Perhaps this is the cause of the 
 peculiar quaintness of his utterances, and the reason that 
 his analogies might often be considered conceits — so widely 
 apart are the fields from which they are drawn. 
 
THE SHEPHERD UNREMUNERATIVE. 115 
 
 The first number of the Shepherd was published at the 30th August 
 end of August 1834, for the purpose of giving publicity to 
 the theories that had so long been seething in his brain. It 
 was purely a labour of love, conducted gratis, as was the 
 Crisis. Thus he says at end of the first volume : — 
 
 ' We shall not thank our readers, as some editors do, for 22nd August 
 
 1835. 
 
 we are under no obligation to them, nor they to us. We 
 have all followed the impulse of our own minds. We have 
 conducted the Shepherd for one year without a farthing of 
 remuneration ; they have paid one penny a week for our 
 labour. If they do not complain, we do not ; and if we do 
 not, they have no cause to murmur.' 
 
 We also learn in the introduction to the second volume 
 that 'the first was brought forth under very unfavourable 
 circumstances — chiefly bad health. These created a passivity 
 of mind which made us less circumspect, discreet, and 
 industrious, in respect to the contents, than we hope to prove 
 in the present volume.' 
 
 Yet, with all allowances, we have a remarkable resum^ of 
 the science of the time from the fiery crucible where it had 
 been melted down. 
 
 ' Nature is one splendid unity — connected in all its parts 
 — and although apparently at times in violent opposition to 
 itself, yet this opposition is only local and always tends to the 
 restoration of tranquility. If not, ]N"ature would ultimately 
 destroy itself, which is impossible. Hence it follows that 
 Nature, as a whole, is in harmony with itself, and harmony is 
 good. It follows, also, that no evil can last for ever — evil 
 destroys itself — good only is eternal, and naturally arises into 
 being after evil has exhausted itself. Thus the balance swings 
 for a long time after the scales are filled, and then reposes in 
 equilibrium and justice for ever. Nature is also infinite ; 
 she has no beginning — can have no end — and no boundary 
 of existence. Nay, we may almost venture to say that the 
 stars are infinite in number ; for, if not, there would be an 
 infinity of space beyond them in which nothing existed, and 
 
1834 
 
 116 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 those at the very border of creation would be attracted by 
 those in the centre, and all would converge into one mass — 
 unless we suppose them, like the planets, to whirl around one 
 common centre.' 
 
 He soon gets astride of some analogy with which he 
 becomes enamoured, but having plenty more forthcoming he 
 loth August seldom rides it to death. ' Carbon may be called the body 
 of Nature, and oxygen and hydrogen its two spirits. These 
 two spirits have each a distinct character — the one may be 
 called active, the other passive, or, if you will, male and 
 female. This affinity is the cause of all the movements of 
 Xaturo.' Again : — * Of the three substances, solid, liquid, and 
 gas, the solid is in one sense the strongest, and in another 
 the weakest — the gas is the weakest and yet the strongest. 
 
 It is the gas which causes the earth to shake, 
 
 and rends the mountain into fragments. The gas acquires 
 this power by its elasticity and motion. All active power 
 resides in gas — the solid has only the passive power of resist- 
 ance.' After giving examples, he continues : — ' Thus the 
 weakest is the strongest, and the strongest the weakest, and 
 strength is made perfect by weakness. Let no man therefore 
 despise the weakness of Xature, for therein its strength lies 
 — and this beautiful truth displays itself in every department 
 of Nature. Thus, for instance, in our own species, the man 
 of mild and amiable deportment, and moderate abilities, will 
 successfully accomplish his end, when the man of loud and 
 presumptuous pretensions, obstinacy of disposition, and 
 strength of mind, will meet with humiliation and dis- 
 appointment. Metaphysics may be learned from physics, 
 and physics from metaphysics ; for such is the harmony of 
 Nature, that if a law be found prevalent in the one, you may 
 be sure to find its counterpart and equivalent in the other.' 
 
 From the first the author had his readers and scholars, 
 many of whom had been educated up to his present stand- 
 point by his previous labours. 
 
 'I am very busily employed. I have two weekly papers 
 
CHECKING ATHEISM. 117 
 
 to conduct. The SJiepherd costs iiic most time, because my i^th Dec 
 name is to it, and it contains the fundamental principles of James to 
 my doctrine. The other consults more the humour of the 
 public, but still tends to the same result. The SJie2)hcrd is 
 doing well — no paper of the kind is doing better — and I have 
 no doubt that I am laying the foundation of a new church 
 whose members will increase yearly. The difficulty is all at 
 the present in getting it to take root. I have made a power- 
 ful impression on many, and Providence seems to be working 
 curiously for me. Taylor is now banished for ever ; he has 
 gone to Paris, and scarcely can return again ; his visit to 
 England will cost him £300 or imprisonment for breach of 
 promise of marriage. Carlile is in prison. Owen is losing 
 ground. Detrosier, the most eloquent of all, is dead, and 
 many are proposing to call me to " the ^Fechanics Hall of 
 Science " in his stead. I won't go to support Detrosier's 
 principles— although he was as good a creature as ever lived — 
 but I have no objections to lecture occasionally or on Sunday 
 evenings for them. I am determined now to make a bold 
 stand against infidelity, and form a people for myself. I 
 have many friends, but they are yet scattered. I have done 
 more in two years than I could have expected. I am certain 
 I have checked the progress of Atheism. Owen himself is 
 now beginning to talk of the Spirit of the Universe, and the 
 designs and plans of the great Spirit. This little is a great 
 deal ; I don't like to see much at a time, but it is a favourable 
 omen, and I have the same omen from all quarters. You 
 will soon find that my system of doctrine will do more good 
 than all the other doctrines combined. The printer says the 
 Shepherd will soon be out of print — we print 3000 copies 
 
 weekly I lecture now on Sunday evenings in my old 
 
 hall in Castle Street, within half a gunshot of poor Irving's 
 chapel. His chapel looks straight into Castle Street. His is 
 quite amongst the artists in Newman Street, very near 
 Copley Fielding's house ; mine is a very handsome hall — very 
 comfortable, with a blazing fire and a line well-furnished 
 
118 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 parlour from Avliicli to enter, and in a most respectable part 
 of the towiL I have a tough battle to fight, but still I feel 
 
 conscious of good intention and of doing good 
 
 I can't say that I am sorry for Aunt Lizzy's death. She 
 is better gone from a world like this. The rising generation 
 may hope for good things, but the old cannot, neither will 
 the old be of much use. I had a very lively dream the 
 other night which was very illustrative of this. I dreamed 
 I was going to preach for Owen, and as I went into the 
 pulpit I thought the congregation rose and went out. I felt 
 hurt, but immediately a tremendous rush of boys and girls 
 came in and filled the seats. The interpretation was given 
 me in my dream by a man beside me, who told me that the 
 old generation would abide by Owen, but the young would 
 come to me. Last Sunday evening, a day or two after the 
 dream, a Spaniard who heard me told me to address myself 
 to the young, for they only were the minds whom Xature 
 was preparing for me. He said I was the only man in 
 England who had any idea of the systematic progress of 
 Xature.' 
 
 He continues, that the Scotch papers are a century behind 
 — the verdict might be reversed to-day — and complains 
 greatly of bad health and the strength necessary to do all 
 his work. In a P.S. he says : — ' Irving is dead ; he told my 
 father that I was possessed of a devil ! ' which, no doubt, 
 accounted for Borthwick's failing to move Irving in his 
 favour. Meantime, he has been elaborating his system of 
 Xature, and carrying his doctrine of ' good and evil ' into 
 the physical world. ' Good and evil, then, as applied to 
 food and poison, are very improper terms, and greatly delude 
 the ignorant. There is evil in none of the elements of 
 Xature — all is good — the evil is merely relative to ourselves, 
 and exists only in the ignorance or imprudence that makes 
 an improper use of the different compounds that surround 
 us.' Justice and injustice he declares to be equally 
 necessary, as justice means equality, and this means stagna- 
 
SPIRITUALISM AND MATERIALISM. 119 
 
 tiou. ' The Unitarian and Trinitarian controversy resolves 
 itself finally into a philosophical question, and both are true. 
 Nature at rest is unity ; Nature in action is a trinity,' 
 which he exemplifies chemically by the ferment produced by 
 two agents. 
 
 He next approaches Faith and Infidelity : — ' There always 27th Sept. 
 were two such parties in existence. AVithout infidelity, faith Shepherd. 
 would not enquire ; and without faith, infidelity would not 
 enquire ; but the two principles stimulating each other 
 produce investigation, conflict of mind, discovery of facts, 
 and demonstrations of elementary truths.' 
 
 With similar ingenuity he discusses Spiritualism and 2nd oct. 
 Materialism, ' which express in substance the same meaning 
 as faith and infidelity. The one takes the side of God 
 and the other the side of Nature.' Polytheism he held to 
 be the infancy of Materialism, while the Jewish Church 
 was, if not the source, the centre of pure Spiritualism, and 
 the Jews were consequently reckoned Atheists by other 
 nations. 
 
 'This people decidedly abjured the worship of matter, 
 and maintained that Deity was Spirit. Thus the two 
 parties stood when Jesus Christ, the representative of Deity 
 or Nature, appeared ; and he taught this new doctrine, that 
 he, or in other words Deity, had two natures, divine and 
 human — that is, spiritual and material. The Jews rejected 
 this, for it was Materialism ; and the Gentiles received it 
 for the same reason, for their previous faith had prepared 
 them to receive it.' 
 
 This is reasoned out with great skill and learning, simply 
 put : — ' That matter exists few can seriously dispute ; and 
 that there is a spiritual power within it, by which its move- 
 ments are caused, is equally absurd to deny. Without the 
 matter, the power could not act, for it has not a patient to 
 act upon. Without the power, the matter could not act, 
 for it has not a cause to produce an effect. Hence the only 
 philosophy which is unassailable by objection of any kind is 
 
120 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 that which combines Materialism and Spiritualism in one. 
 Both extremes are wrong, as usual' 
 
 Having shown the unity of the three kingdoms — animal, 
 vegetable, and mineral — he proceeds to deal with the 
 physical, intellectual, and moral; the moral being a com- 
 bination of the other two extremes. This paper is par- 
 ticularly rich in sound reasoning, much of which has since 
 isth Oct. become the common property of thinking men. * Pain 
 Shepherd, and pleasure are not two distinct perceptions, but one. We 
 have not a nervous system for pain and another for pleasure, 
 but one nervous system for both. The one is merely the 
 concord, the other the discord of the nerve ; and there are 
 some sensations of which it is hard to say to which depart- 
 ment they belong ; tickling possesses the character of each — 
 it makes us laugh and cry at the same time. Pain is merely 
 
 an excess of sensation We must eat of the tree of 
 
 good and evil before zve can become as gods There 
 
 can be no moral, no physical evil where wisdom is perfect, 
 for it teaches the means of curing the evil ; there can be no 
 moral evil where there is no physical evil, for immorality is 
 
 merely that species of conduct which creates evil 
 
 Falsehood and error always disorder society, and bring 
 sorrow to some one ; truth reveals the cause of the evil, 
 which is removed as soon as men are convinced of it. Truth, 
 then, is the great reformer.' 
 
 It is not enough that old religion and modern science 
 should be ransacked to illustrate Smith's views of JN'ature, 
 the occult sciences had always a keen interest for him, and 
 he dragged from them much pabulum for his philosophy : — 
 
 'The numbers three and seven are the fundamental 
 numbers which Nature employs in the composition of bodies, 
 and a very few words will illustrate the truth of it. The 
 two simplest, and consequently the two fundamental or 
 primary figures, are a triangle and a circle — the one composed 
 of a straight line, the other of a curved ; every other figure 
 is made up of parts of these. K'ow, supposing all Nature to 
 
THE PRIMARY FIGURES. 121 
 
 be composed of atoms, it is evident that the smallest 
 number which can compose a regular figure is three. Take 
 three sixpences, and place them on the table so as to touch 
 each other, and you find that there is no possibility of 
 making any other figure than a triangle. Then, again, take 
 seven sixpences and place one in the centre and six around 
 it, and you find that the seven form the figure of a circle, 
 and no other number but seven will accomplish it.' Pro- 
 ceeding to add four (the square), as at least a primary figure, 
 if not a fundamental one, seeing that although composed 
 of two triangles these are unequal, he alludes to crystallo- 
 graphy as a proof of the universality of these in Nature, and 
 continues in a very typical paragraph, which we quote in 
 full, as exemplifying alike the strength and weakness of his 
 analogical style : — 
 
 * Wherever we cast our eyes upon Nature, whether we 
 take the visible or intellectual world — the world of progress 
 — or that of coexistent forms, institutions and systems, we 
 find this everlasting law of the Trinity prevail. It is 
 actually the beginning of every science, the first movement 
 of Nature, and manifests itself from first to last in every 
 imaginable variety of forms. The four and the seven are 
 its first-born. Take an example very diff'erent from the 
 subjects above treated of. We shall take the three original 
 colours — blue, red, and yellow. This is the trinity of light. 
 These are simple uncompounded colours. Then let us mix 
 them, and we find that only four difi"erent mixtures can be 
 made of them : — First, blue and red; second, red and yellow; 
 third, blue and yellow ; and last of all, blue, red, and yellow 
 in one — in all seven. There are only three different ways in 
 which they can exist : — First, in a single state, as three distinct 
 colours; second, all the three mixed, making in all four; 
 and third, with only two colours mixed, which makes three 
 more — in all seven. In imitation of, or accordance with, 
 this simple law, there are seven colours in the rainbow or 
 prism, the indigo, as an exception to all the rest, being com- 
 
122 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 posed of three; this is the deepest or blackest colour of the 
 seven, the opposite extreme of Avhite, which is also a mix- 
 ture of three. Thus white and blue are the opposite 
 extremes of light, and therefore the lights of heaven are set 
 in blue. Green is the very central and most perfect of all the 
 seven, therefore the earth is clothed in green.' Trinity he 
 finds in politics as in light: — 'Monarchy, aristocracy, and 
 democracy, each of which in all ages of the world has had 
 its devoted partisans.' Nature is not only to him homo- 
 geneous, but unchangeable, and her laws everlasting, although 
 apparently full of contradictions. They require his doctrine 
 to explain them in all departments. '^N'either the infidel 
 nor believer can redeem the world ; they each want the 
 uniting doctrine, the spirit of interpretation, to simplify all 
 things, and bring order out of confusion.' 
 
 In another article he holds that, Avhile acknowledging the 
 sovereign power of the people, ' without individual control 
 there is no order.' His further observations would come 
 w^ith tenfold more force to-day. ' Xo parliamentary legisla- 
 tion — it is the very excess of apostacy from order and good 
 government. It is a foolish and extravagant wasting of 
 the time of the nation, and a cockpit for country jockeys, 
 wrangling lawyers, and invidious partisans of whims and 
 theories concerning political and social order, to try their 
 
 strength, and measure swords with each other 
 
 Nothing can be more impolitic than to confer the legislative 
 or sovereign power upon a debating society, which, in the 
 very nature of things, must divide itself into two conflicting 
 parties, whose judgments cannot fail to be perverted by the 
 spirit of faction and the love of victory.' 
 
 "Week after Aveek he thus continued carrying his system 
 
 into all departments of human thought, which circled around 
 
 his religious principle, and was never far away from it : — 
 
 27th Dec. ' God and Devil are the two extremes of Nature, which it is 
 
 Shepherd. HOW the busiucss of men to regard as one mind.' But he 
 
 goes to the Bible as the great fount of our religious know- 
 
FEAR IS A FIRST LESSON. 123 
 
 ledge, and while considering it inspired, minimises the 
 admission : — ' I^o art of individual man could have done it ; 
 it is beyond all the craft and subtilty of the highest wisdom 
 of an individual. It is a species of inspiration which is 
 decidedly different from reason, but by no means superior to 
 it, as the priests say. On the contrary, vision and prophecy 
 are the lowest grades of mental inspiration, as they are not 
 the result of individual knowledge and exercise of mind, 
 but merely impressions, somewhat analogous to instinct in 
 animals, caused by involuntary movements, such as the 
 dreams and visions of sleep, which are not voluntary exercises 
 of mind, but produced by a cause unsearchable. Religion 
 arises from this visionary source ; but it is the province of 
 reason to judge and arrange the Sybil-leaves which are thus 
 scattered in confusion from the wild shrubbery of Nature, 
 hence it is written: — "Know ye not that ye shall judge 
 angels?" Judgment is given to man; he is not to follow 
 bhndly, like a slave, but to think, like a Son. Evil reigns 
 until man dares to be a judge of what he has hitherto 
 feared to approach.' 
 
 For fear is a first rude lesson. ' The fear of the Lord is 
 the beginning of wisdom : ' there is no fear without evil to 
 fear — ergo^ 'Take away the evil of pain, and the fear of 
 pain, and the child would become a fool ; it would run into 
 the fire, it would tumble downstairs, it would leap out of 
 the window. In fine, without evil, where could good be 
 found? for good is nothing but a selection from general 
 nature, of what suits our particular nature. Evil and 
 good, therefore, or the law and the gospel, are the two 
 teachers of mankind, the two extremes ; the one acts by fear 
 and the other by love.' 
 
 Having led up to this, he inculcated his principle of 
 Universalism in a fine piece of reasoning, of which only a 
 brief resume can be given : — 
 
 'We shall now proceed further in our analysis, everlastingly 
 keeping in view this eternal and universal law of Nature — the 
 
124 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 Positive and Negative action.'^ In answer to the question, 
 What are the negative and i^ositive doctrines of Redemjjtion ? 
 he replies: — 'The positive doctrine of the old church is, 
 " The elect, or a small number only, shall be saved." The 
 
 negative doctrine to this is, "All men shall be saved." 
 
 Then the query is, How are these two contrary propositions 
 reconciled? Very easily — as easily as the positives and 
 negatives of any other department of l^ature. The one 
 alludes to the person and the other to the principles, which 
 are the positive and negative poles of our nature. "When 
 it is said that the wicked shall be destroyed, it means that 
 all wicked principles shall be destroyed with eternal punish- 
 ments; and this is a great blessing in which we shall all 
 rejoice. "When it is said that all men shall be saved, it 
 means that w^hilst the principles are destroyed, the person 
 shall be saved, but renewed ; as St. Paul says, the man him- 
 self shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Eternal punishments 
 are therefore a blessing ; they mean nothing else than the 
 
 destruction of evil As she (Mature) has given 
 
 the material w^orld to the senses for us to analyse, so has she 
 given the moral and spiritual world to the imagination. 
 Sensible nature and revelation are the positive and negative 
 elements of thought ; both are equally unintelligible at first, 
 and, in the progress of the human mind, the full and satis- 
 factory dissection and demonstration of both come out 
 together ; so that at the very time when Faraday (this he 
 did about a month ago) is declaring at the Royal Institution 
 that the whole science of chemistry is about to be revolu- 
 tionised, and established upon a new base, we are now laying 
 
 ^ See Laing, who lias adopted this view : — * And the great law 
 seems to prevail universally throughout the material, as it does also 
 throughout the moral world, that you cannot have a North without a 
 South Pole, a positive without a negative, a right without a wrong ; 
 and that error consists mainly in what the poet calls "the falsehood 
 of extremes " — tliat is, in allowing the attraction of one pole, or of one 
 opinion, so to absorb us as to take no account of its opposite.' — 
 Modern Science and Modern Thougld. 
 
CHRISTIAN MATERIALISM. 125 
 
 a new foundation of spiritual and intellectual chemistry, 
 exactly corresponding to his. His foundation is the positive 
 and negative action of the electric power, which is now 
 supposed to be the great ostensible chemical agent of IS'ature ; 
 we are, therefore, in the very van of progress, and are antici- 
 pating a new practical and theoretical universal philosophy.' 
 
 In considering sacrifice for sin, he shrewdly refers to the irtii Jan. 
 Christian Materialism: — 'The foolish creatures of the present 
 generation imagine that it is the real material flesh and blood 
 
 which are the sacrifice for sin.' ' They adhere as 
 
 faithfully to their human blood as the Jews did to their 
 calves blood. And now it is a fair question between us and 
 them, whether it is the blood of the body or the blood of the 
 mind that requires to be shed at last. We say the blood of 
 the mind — that is, of the old man or old world, namely, a false 
 foundation of doctrine, which leads to a false superstructure 
 in religion and politics. The priests and Christians, both 
 clerical and lay, have carnalised the Word. They have 
 worshipped flesh and blood, and yet so contemptuously 
 doth the Word speak of this flesh and blood, that it says it 
 cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Yet this very thing, 
 which cannot inherit the kingdom of God, is declared by 
 the priests to be the lamb without spot and blemish, which 
 
 men must eat and drink before they can be saved ! 
 
 The Spirit must be preserved and glorified. This is the true 
 and final sacrifice for sin.' 
 
 A subtle paper on Inspiration, which treats of eternity, soth Jan. 
 and is opposed to science, which treats of time, declares : — 
 'Reason, therefore — hope — science itself — come all to the 
 side of revelation at last, who is a helpmate to man in his in- 
 sulated state of individual existence — a helpmate that shows 
 him his connection with a sublime and eternal principle of 
 life and power, to whom nothing but absolute absurdities 
 are impossible, and in whom good must be superior to evil.' 
 
 A letter to his brother, expostulatory and explanatory but 
 not exculpatory, describes his private feelings at this time. 
 
126 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 3id Feb. * I am HOW distinct from any party or individual whose name 
 James to ^^ infamous, and mean to continue so. I have a very re- 
 Joiin. spectable number of friends who come to hear me every 
 
 Sunday evening, and I print 250 more of the Shepherd 
 than I did when I last wrote you — which is one proof that 
 it has not fallen off. I believe there is not a clergyman in 
 England or Scotland doing more good than myself. What 
 individual but myself can keep up a weekly paper on 
 theological subjects; there is not a clergyman in Scotland 
 would find readers, and I doubt if England could furnish 
 as many as Scotland. My success with the Shepherd is 
 greater than I expected. Owen's own paper, the New 
 Moi-al Worlds only printed 2000 copies, about a fortnight 
 ago, so that now he has a fair opportunity of proving 
 whether it was himself or the editor of the Crisis that was 
 the least popular of the two, and whether there was any 
 truth in what Taifs Magazine said — that the d'isis had 
 fallen since Owen gave up the conducting of it. When the 
 Shepherd began, Owen said it would soon die — we will leave 
 that to kill itself. Now Ave print a thousand more than he 
 does, and I have broken up a vast deal of the materialism 
 and infidelity of his party, and will do more yet, I hope.' 
 We get a glimpse of his private affairs too ; that is quite in 
 accordance with his devotion to his mission. In sending 
 something to his mother, he explains how he stands, frankly, 
 to his brother: — *My lectures, after clearing all expenses 
 (they are now 3d. each — ladies free, we learn), never render 
 me more than 12s. as yet. This would not keep me, but I 
 write a number of things for the press, which make up the 
 deficiency. I never clear more than 30s. per week, and pay 
 8s. for my lodgings, besides coal and candle. I can assure 
 you for some time past it has been all touch and go with me, 
 and I have to want many things I stand in need of, especially 
 books. I make up the latter deficiency the best way I can, 
 by going to the library of the British Museum occasionally, 
 for which I have a ticket.' 
 
DOCTRIXE OF GOOD AND EVIL. 127 
 
 He explains in this letter that, while chiefly amongst the 
 Avorking classes, he has acquaintance with some of high 
 rank, ' but of that it is not worth speaking,' except to show 
 he is not disreputable ! * I don't regret anything I have 
 published. The Antichrist was as necessary as the Shepherd, Antichrist. 
 and will be more useful still — but people don't understand 
 it. One party tliinks it infidel, another blasphemous ; they 
 will soon be mistaken when once they see the Doctrine of 
 Good and Evil. I have just now had a rector of the English 
 Church calling on me — he and I are quite friends — and he 
 thinks with me the Church must all be rectified.' 
 
 How it is to be done, he proceeds to show by his system. 
 After explaining the resemblances of Christian and Jewish 
 systems with those of the older systems of the East and 
 Egypt, as being a proof of the universality of the Bible and 
 the ideas it contains, being ' a gathering of the elements of 
 the human mind,' he discusses the views of the Infidels, 
 such as Yolney and Depuis. 
 
 ' But all these negative doctrines do good at last. They 7th Feb. 
 first destroy the old exclusive system, and then themselves Shepherd. 
 are destroyed by one still more comprehensive.' 
 
 His argument in connection with missionary enterprise is i4th Feb. 
 most interesting. While attacking what he calls Carnal Shepherd. 
 Christianity, he views its missions with satisfaction, because 
 ' abroad they are the movement party — innovators ; at home 
 they are the stagnant party — supporters of error and corrup- 
 tion. The difference is infinite.' 
 
 In a curious comparison of Catholicism and Protestantism, 
 we obtain an insight into his objection both to Romanism 
 and the severe Protestantism under which he had suffered : — 
 
 ' According to Catholicism, the sword of the Spirit is 2sth Feb. 
 superior to the sword of steel ; according to Protestantism, 
 the sword of steel is superior to the sword of the Spirit. 
 But the sword of the Spirit may be either evil or good. In 
 the old Catholic Church it was evil, therefore it was better 
 to use the sword of steel against it, than to let it continue 
 
128 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 to commit its spiritual depredations. So far, Protestantism . 
 was right; but Avlien the sword of the Spirit changes its 
 character, and works with fundamental truths instead of 
 fundamental errors, then Protestantism becomes wrong — 
 the sword of steel and all external compulsion ought to be 
 abandoned ; we must resume once more the sword of the 
 Spirit, and this becomes 'Catholicism reformed.' He ex- 
 plains how the more spiritual Catholicism, through its 
 ^Materialism, accelerated the progress of the fine arts ; while 
 Protestantism, which is Materialism, or the superiority of 
 the magistrate, returned to first principles in faith, and 
 abandoned all the improvements of art, prided it- 
 self in a purely spiritual religion, which had little or no 
 connection with the flesh. To crown all, and to make this 
 analysis of the Church more complete, the spiritual Roman 
 Church maintained the doctrine of justification by works of 
 the body ; whilst the material Protestant Church maintained 
 
 the opposite doctrine — of justification by faith only 
 
 The spiritual seeks the material, and the material seeks the 
 spiritual. Hence it follows that man, who represents the 
 spiritual, holds the material sword ; but woman, represent- 
 ing the material, has the moral power, which will ultimately 
 overcome the former. Woman is a refinement of man ; her 
 nature is posterior in its formation ; she is therefore properly 
 represented as last created ; she is the end of the old world, 
 and the new can only begin with her complete emancipation 
 from the curse of the first.' 
 7th March 'There is one peculiarity about the papacy which dis- 
 
 tinguishes it above all other systems, and that is its entire 
 rejection of the system of hereditary nobility and hereditary 
 legislation. This is quite in character with a spiritual system. 
 Hereditary succession belongs to Materialism. The popes, in 
 general, rose to the chair of St. Peter from the lowest grades 
 
 of human society This system was the natural 
 
 consequence of the celibacy of the clergy. Had they been 
 married men, with families of their, own, no such laws would 
 
 1835. 
 
THE FURNACE OF THE CHURCH. 129 
 
 ever have been framed Yet there never was an 
 
 institution of greater corruption and cruelty than Catholicism. 
 It exceeds in depravity everything which history has re- 
 corded, or romance invented. How, then, is it possible that 
 there can be any good thing in that which has produced 
 such evil fruit? How (we reply) can there be any good 
 thing in the human race which has exceeded in cruelty and 
 
 rapacity every other species of animal ? Protestantism 
 
 is the purgatory of the Church Protestantism is 
 
 not the Church ; it is the furnace of the Church, to burn up 
 the dross, and destroy the evil of its first character ; it is 
 the womb into which the Church returns in order that it 
 may be born again. It follows, then, that Catholicism can- 
 not bring forth the true and the final system. That system 
 comes out of the purgatory of the Church — the womb of its 
 
 second and great mother Protestantism is the 
 
 mother of the new and universal Church, of the second 
 Catholic system, having the original likeness of the old man, 
 but purged of all his dross, his superstition, his exclusive- 
 ness, and his cruelty.' 
 
 He is always seeking to inculcate this * religion of progress, i-^^^^ March 
 which, like the spinal marrow, has run up the backbone of 
 Time, and is now forming the brain and intellectual system 
 of the new world.' But the puberty of society must first be 
 reached : — * That puberty is approaching, by the rapid pro- 
 gression of science and art, by the aid of which mankind 
 become fellow-labourers with God in renewing the face of 
 Nature, and bringing into being the new creation. Revela- 
 tion and mystery keep pace with this progression, in a state 
 of hostility.' 
 
 All ideas are worked into the Mosaic of his system of 
 Nature with shrewdness and sagacity : — 
 
 ' The true gathering of the Jews is the gathering of all 21st March 
 religions into one. Jewism is the beginning of progress, 
 Universalism is the end. Universalism is only Judaism 
 refined. The Jewish Church was only an emblem of the 
 
 K 
 
130 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERBALIST. 
 
 Catholic or Universal Church. Its principle was unity — the 
 unity of God, the unity of religion, the unity of the 
 Temple. There was only one temple for the whole Jewish 
 
 nation Experience teaches fools wisdom, they 
 
 say, but there are some exceptions ; and as neither Jews 
 nor Christians have ever yet found their prophecies ful- 
 filled as they expected them, they ought to have been 
 persuaded that their literal interpretation was not the right 
 
 one It is not Jews nor Greeks who are to be 
 
 gathered; it is principles only. The gathering is spiritual 
 or mental ; it takes place in every man's mind.' 
 
 "We learn at this time, through a casual notice to his 
 readers, that he has for twelve months had his studies 
 interfered with by deficient bodily health, and that he 
 consequently was about to subject himself to tellurism or 
 animal magnetism, at the hands of his contributor, De Prati 
 
 See letter to (under the signature of 'The Alpine Philosopher'). He 
 afterwards had grave cause to be suspicious of his friend, 
 and as to the reliability of his communications. 
 
 1835^^"^ In an inquiry into ' the Moral Law of God and Nature,' 
 
 he explains that of all the institutions of Moses, the moral 
 law is the only portion which has survived the wreck of 
 spiritualisation — the rest have been metamorphosed into 
 types and allegories, shadows, and such like visionary and 
 
 temporary varieties ; but the moral law of the ten 
 
 commandments is an eternal and perfect law, and as long as 
 the present system of society lasts, it ought to be enforced 
 in its literal and most obvious sense. Whilst exclusiveness 
 and individuality of property and interest continue, all the 
 restrictions of the moral law are necessary to preserve order 
 
 and keep up the spirit of industry in the world 
 
 Who is it that does not break the second commandment? 
 Is it the Christian ? He worships the image of God. Is it 
 the Deist 1 He worships only the spirit of Nature — abstract 
 from Nature itself. Is it the Infidel 1 He worships Nature 
 alone — abstract from the spirit . that gives it life, and 
 
MULTIPLYING AUTHORITIES. 131 
 
 organises the universcal fabric in whole or in part. It is the 
 Universalist alone who keeps the second commandment ; for 
 he alone refrains from rending into separate parts the infinite 
 and indivisible God.' He proceeds to claim a seventh day 
 of rest, which he holds is broken by all masters and 
 mistresses, but protests against Sabbatarianism. 'That 
 which is actually the true method of keeping the Sabbath 
 would be considered sacrilege and impiety by the Sabbath-bill 
 gentlemen and the disciples of the old school of sanctification.' 
 Their explaining away of the letter of the old law leads the 
 Shepherd to a most characteristic attack on the 'pastors.' 
 
 * There is no obstacle too great for a priest, no troop too 
 formidable, no wall too high. " By thee," says David, " I 
 have run through a troop, and by my God I have leaped 
 over a wall." David is but a sample of all the rest ; they 
 have all been admirable leapers. If the spirit of a com- 
 mandment is any way troublesome to keep, or revolting 
 to flesh and blood, they make a spring by the grace of God 
 assisting them, and leap over it in a twinkling, and soothe 
 their conscience by paying due deference to the letter of the 
 commandment. If, however, the letter be troublesome, it 
 requires only another spring, and over they go, their wit 
 never failing them for a suitable excuse and a learned 
 apology, from tlie practice of the fathers, and the opinions of 
 the most eminent divines. They are at no loss for authorities ; 
 and the next generation will be much less so, inasmuch as it 
 will have all the authority of the fathers as a primary founda- 
 tion, and the authority of the present school of the saints 
 in addition ; and thus, if they continue to pursue this system 
 of authorities, they will perpetuate the system of disobedience 
 by dint of pure learning and faithful quotation. The teach- 
 ing of the parsons is shamefully corrupt. The world has 
 
 departed from the spirit of the moral law The 
 
 morality of the Bible is infinitely superior to the morality of 
 either churchman or dissenter.' 
 
 Still, he holds that there are general rules of morality as 
 
132 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 11th April eternal as the laws of Nature herself : — * As the love of 
 ^^^^' individual happiness is the fundamental and only law of 
 
 individual morality, so the love of universal happiness is the 
 only law of public morality. There is no occasion for any 
 other fundamental principle of morals than this.' He claims 
 also that ' Jesus Christ's summary of the decalogue is better 
 than the decalogue itself : — " Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
 as thyself." This is '' Universalism," the divided law re- 
 duced to a single proposition.' 
 
 Political perfection is to be obtained when Individualism 
 18th April and Universalism are one : — ' At present we have got In- 
 dividualism without Universalism we live in a land 
 
 of tyrants, where every man is both master and slave to 
 his neighbour. "We may call it what we like, liberty or 
 slavery, it matters not ; both terms are equally appropriate, 
 
 and equally in earnest A species of refined slavery 
 
 is the very perfection of society, in which all men are bound 
 by a moral sense of duty to become the servants of one 
 
 master Nothing more is necessary to regenerate 
 
 political and social life than a classification of the people and 
 a strict system of registry for all their public movements and 
 employments It is a moral inquisition ; and with- 
 out a moral inquisition, save the world who can 
 
 We anticipate a system of universal amalgamation, in which 
 men shall be ranked according to their pursuits in life, 
 See Looking without any reference either to their talents or their property, 
 by BdJamy. and without any restrictions by which they shall be confined 
 to any particular caste beyond the limits of their own good 
 pleasure.' 
 
 He returns to this subject, and deals with it more spiritu- 
 25th April ally, starting with a definition : — * Universal being, or exist- 
 ence, naturally divides itself into two aspects, which we call 
 matter and mind ; the one gross, the other refined. We call 
 that matter which can be seen, or felt, or measured, or 
 weighed; and we call that mind which acts by will and 
 intelligence; yet we cannot draw a line of distinction be- 
 
 1835. 
 
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 133 
 
 tween them any more than Ave can distinguish bitter from 
 sweet, or cold from heat.' As in the animal, vegetable, and 
 mineral kingdoms, ' so also mind and matter are essentially 
 distinct in their extremes, athough indistinguishable at the 
 line of separation.' 
 
 ' The ten Jewish commandments are the basis of morality, 
 but they have hitherto been grossly and carnally considered. 
 The spirit of the commandment has always been over- 
 looked. The spirit of almost any one of the ten might 
 restore the whole of society to tranquillity. The spirit 
 of the first and second, the ninth and tenth, is pure Uni- 
 versalism in faith and practice ; and all the rest lend their 
 subsidiary aid to establish the liberal, the social, and the 
 eternal principles of good moral nature, which we advocate.' 
 
 The socialistic influence is still strongly present in his 
 mind : — ' Crime in the abstract or the aggregate is virtue. 
 It is a necessary check upon the selfish principle; the 
 revenge of Nature upon hoarders of wealth and appropriators 
 of other men's w^ages. It helps to destroy the evil of 
 monopoly by scattering the heaps of indolent and unproduc- 
 tive acquisitiveness. As long as there is such a thing as Perfect com- 
 private property, there must be such an art as the art of unatta'inabic 
 abstracting that property from the individual who has appro- ^^^'^^' 
 priated it, and the beau-ideal of a state of perfect honesty is 
 merely a state of perfect community : until we come to the 
 latter, we can never come to the former. But perfect com- 
 munity is unattainable ; it is merely a beau-ideal, a standard 
 of perfection to which we ought to strive ; and, if so, the art 
 of abstraction, or thieving, must continue for ever, becoming 
 more and more refined in its modes of operation, and farther 
 removed from the rude and barbarous practice of personal 
 assault, highway-robbery, and housebreaking. Stealing is 
 now regarded as one of the fine arts, and is practised by men 
 of all ranks and all grades of respectability.' 
 
 He looked to woman for much, felt that she suffered 
 cruelly under then existing laws and arrangements, and had 
 
134 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 a very extensive correspondence with good women on the 
 problems of life and immortality that equally concerned 
 them. His mind rebelled against the carnality of life as the 
 devil to be bound, and he sought to aid both sexes and every 
 class in their struggle to maintain the higher expression of 
 existence. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 UNIVERSALISM CONTINUED. 
 
 To James Smith the science of religion was the science of 
 life — revelation was progressive; yet at this time we had 
 not made the advances we have since made in Eastern study, 
 and, although a Hebraist, he was not a Sanscrit scholar. But 
 even whilst to him revelation, as he knew it, thus com- 
 menced with Abraham, he acknowledges that it had been in 
 all ages and all countries. 
 
 ' This revelation has grown like every other natural pro- leth May 
 duction. It has been entrusted to the most progressive and 
 intelligent nations, in order to facilitate its progress towards 
 Universalism ; it has associated itself with the most powerful 
 governments; it has employed in its service the greatest 
 talents and the most profound researches of learning ; it has 
 collected around its own person a bodyguard of physical, 
 intellectual, and moral strength, to which there is not, and 
 cannot be, a rival found ; and every people, every tribe and 
 tongue, with a very few particular exceptions, are becoming 
 partially acquainted with its antiquated dogmas ; yet it seems 
 to falter and fall in the very centre of its own vitality — to 
 be withering and drying up at the very source from whence 
 it issues forth its streams of missionary and tract instructions 
 to the remotest corners of the earth. But this decay of 
 religion is merely an illusion ; it is a grand work of prepara- 
 tion for the universal gospel. The gospel of condemnation 
 has had its reign; it is commensurate only with human 
 ignorance, bigotry, and intolerance. When the Almighty, 
 therefore, begins to destroy this temporary system of intel- 
 
136 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 lectual infatuation, lie simply raises up a negative to batter 
 and destroy the old j^ositive, and prepare the way for a neio 
 positive and 7iew negative in friendly union. The negative 
 is infidelity — God's battle-axe and weapon of war, with which 
 he breaks down and destroys the old rotten system of Anti- 
 christ, and then throws the weapon aside as a piece of useless 
 old iron, which has no life, action, or system within it. 
 Wliile this weapon is at work, however, battering, and 
 besieging, and levelling the old Jerusalem of the Saints, and 
 bringing all its doctrines, its forms, and ceremonies into 
 public odium, the spirit of revelation is slowly and gradually 
 rising out of the dead letter of the Word, and revealing the 
 naked truth to a few minds who are in advance of the rest 
 of the world, and prepared to lay the foundation of a new 
 religion, which shall embrace all the hope, the glowing 
 enthusiasm, and ardour of the old, along with the liberality and 
 universal toleration which is advocated by the Infidel party, 
 without the spirit to manifest it either in words or actions.' 
 As he proceeds, he acknowledges that a ' system of IS^ature 
 
 is only another name for religion Religion must 
 
 be perfected some way or another. Not the religion of 
 morals only ; that is not sufficient, and quite incapable of 
 being organised without the religion of opinion also. You 
 may just as well try to make a statue of loose sand, as a 
 religion, or system of morals, or social system, without a 
 satisfactory view of the system of Providence in relation to 
 
 the education, and discipline, and destiny of mankind 
 
 Faith, or opinion, is the primary moving principle 
 
 Yet this faith may be called no faith, inasmuch as it is not 
 faith, but knowledge, reason, and analogy. Hence we have 
 on former occasions spoken of the necessity of destroying 
 faith — that is, mere faith without knowledge. The contra- 
 diction is only apparent, for the one sense is partial, the 
 
 other universal The two are opposite extremes — 
 
 the one, the leading spirit of the old world ; the other, of 
 the world to come Nor is it mere nominal, or 
 
'individual' revelatiox. 137 
 
 what has been called philosophical, faith alone that we build 
 upon. It is a faith as strong, as active, as consoling as any 
 religious faith in the history of man ; a faith which dwells 
 with repose and certainty upon all the promises of religion ; 
 a faith which trusts in Providence, both individual and 
 universal ; which looks forward with enthusiasm to the ful- 
 filment of the hopes which the faithful in all ages have 
 entertained ; and a faith which is combined with the utmost 
 degree of liberality and charity.' 
 
 In the same number in which this appears there is an 
 interesting article on ' Witchcraft.' In this he remarks that 
 he believes in an individual as well as a universal revela- 
 tion, which have always been antipodes to each other. But 
 since Christianity appeared they have gradually blended 
 together, and continue so to this day. ' Thus we find that 
 our modern wizards, sorcerers, and other students of the arts 
 of diabolism, always invoke the name of Jesus Christ and 
 the holy angels as the ministering patrons of their mysteri- 
 ous rites. But these persons, along with many striking 
 things which they can tell and predict, have so much error, 
 that it is impossible any intelligent mind can ever be directed 
 or counselled by them. This is a wise provision of !N'ature, 
 who follows the same law in this as in Universalism — that 
 is, religion ; she does it all in such a way as to throw us upon 
 the resources of our own minds, and yet let out so much of 
 the loonderfal as to keep alive the faith of the spiritual 
 world, which is necessary to the final settling of all meta- 
 physical and theological questions But it is an 
 
 imposition blended with remarkable truths. If it were not 
 blended with truth, how could it be kept up? And, if it 
 were not an imposition, it would supersede the use of our 
 reasoning faculties, and destroy the foresight, the industry, 
 and the ingenuity of the human race.' ^ Answering a cor- 
 
 1 At the same time, he desires freedom for occultism, and the 
 removal of the penal laws against it, as soon as the shackles on the 
 Jews are removed. 
 
1835. 
 
 138 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 respondent at the same time, he emphasizes his view of 
 Infidelity, which he has been so long allied Avith in Owenism, 
 and seeks so strenuously to combat : — 'Infidelity is such an 
 unsystematic, unintelligible negative, that it is only fit for 
 man in that state of transition when he casts ofi" the errors 
 of vulgar superstition, but has not yet discovered the first 
 
 principle of truth It requires no more knowledge 
 
 to make an Infidel than to make a fanatic ; he has only to 
 swear and laugh at all priestcraft, damn the Bible as an 
 invention of knaves or monks, and say No, no, to every- 
 thing that treats of God or a future state. When he has 
 advanced thus far, he is what some call a "Liberal" — quite 
 finished.' 
 13th June At this time he introduced his views by a remarkable 
 
 paper, in which he analyses the religious ideas of the world, 
 showing that all are both wrong and right. He proceeds 
 
 * to take up some of the leading doctrines of theology, and 
 points out the double meaning attachable to each, by the 
 discovery of which they may all be reconciled. These two 
 meanings are distinguished by the names of partial and 
 universal. The partial or individual sense is the type of the 
 other, and belongs to the old world ; the universal sense is the 
 alternate or liberal meaning, and belongs to the new world.' 
 The last definition will suffice as an example ! 
 
 Atheism. 
 
 * True^ inasmuch as God and Xature are identical, and 
 consequently Jehovah is universal being. To speak, 
 then, of God making Nature, is to speak of God 
 making himself. There is no author of Nature. 
 
 ^ False, inasmuch as the Nature of the Atheist is a dead 
 
 Nature, instead of the living God, eternal life and 
 
 intelligence.' 
 
 Although his letters to my father are, no doubt, tinged 
 
 with a desire to meet his practical views, and consequently 
 
 cannot be looked upon as absolutely natural expressions of 
 
TRUSTING IN PROVIDENCE. 139 
 
 opinion, yet he is too desperately in earnest to content 
 himself long, and he generally breaks into free discussion 
 shortly — out of the fulness of his heart his pen is directed. 
 
 * I am still going on with the Shepherd^ but mean to i8th June 
 finish and make a volume of it in August, when I shall send james to 
 you the whole bound up with the index. Whatever success '^°^°* 
 
 I meet with, I do not repent coming to London ; it was the 
 best move I ever made. I have no doubt it will soon settle 
 me in life, and at least it has given me an employment more 
 congenial to my nature than any I ever before had ; but I 
 expect it to become more congenial still, as I bring round 
 the Infidels, many of whom have already confessed them- 
 selves changed and converted by my doctrine On 
 
 Sunday last I was visited by John Stanley, junior, who was John 
 for years the high priest of John Wroe's visitation ; his jun!^ ^^' 
 father built the Sanctuary at Ashton, which cost him be- 
 tween £7000 and £8000, and he gives it rent free to the 
 people to meet in. But young John has left the cause, being 
 induced to do so solely by reading my writings, which he 
 has regularly taken in from the first. They are also read 
 by John Taylor, their regular preacher at Ashton, so that I John Taylor. 
 have been playing some havoc amongst the Wroeites, to my 
 knowledge, and probably a great deal more without my 
 knowledge. 
 
 * I mean just to go on as I have been going, trusting to 
 Providence for the result. I see that all the movements in 
 Church and State are tending towards my own views, only 
 I am far in advance, and therefore few of the public can 
 sympathise with me — that is the simple fact, not that I am 
 wrong, but I am in advance of them ; but the best proof of 
 their error is their progressive change. 
 
 ' The Dissenters are now getting the better of the Esta- 
 blishment, and the Dissenters will, in their turn, be them- 
 selves overthrown by men of a more liberal and charitable dis- 
 position than can ever be met with in any sectarian religious 
 party I see from the papers they have also been 
 
140 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERS ALIST. 
 
 making a mighty fuss about the Sabbath, like the Pharisees 
 of old. Jesus Christ was a Sabbath-breaker, and so are the 
 mail-coaches, according to the Scotch priests ; and Dr. Lee, 
 poor soul, has thought proper to preach a sermon on the 
 horrid sin of selling ginger-bread and milk on a Sunday 
 morning. I wish he would think and question his own 
 conscience on the sin of covetousness, for there is not a 
 greedier dog in the Church than Dr. Lee. You need not be 
 shocked at me giving such a title to a priest, when Isaiah has 
 done it before me : — " Greedy dogs that never have enough ;" 
 and Saint Paul says, "Beware of dogs." He can't mean the 
 four-footed dogs — that would be a silly and irreverent advice ; 
 he means such dogs as Lee and Proudfoot, who are always 
 barking when one comes near their own bone, although 
 they do not hesitate to steal and plunder bones from other 
 dogs. 
 Sabbath. * I have no doubt that both the Jewish and Christian Sab- 
 
 bath will ultimately be kept, and perhaps the Mahometan — 
 that is, Friday ; so that we shall have three Sabbaths a week, 
 it being compulsory on every man to keep one ; but business 
 will never be suspended. It is one of the most foolish 
 propositions in the world to attempt to stop national business 
 on a Sunday. You may just as well insist upon a Sabbath 
 for watchmen and police-officers, in which case you will give 
 a holiday to thieves and housebreakers, and they will be 
 much obliged to you. Why does not Dr. Lee petition the 
 magistrates of Edinburgh to dispense with the night-watch 
 on Sunday evening and morning 1 I believe he might safely 
 do so, for the thieves are so honourable that out of pure 
 gratitude they would preserve his property to him while he 
 lived.' 
 
 The idea that he is pandering in any way to the midti- 
 tude by his * mediatorial doctrine ' annoys him greatly ; and 
 he assures his readers : — ' We speak from conviction, and 
 have never addressed ourselves to the feelings in preference 
 to the judgment.' Indeed, although he claims to be 'dis- 
 
hell! where evil is destroyed. 141 
 
 creet,' his language is plain enough for that age and time. 
 * Nor is Providence a whit less kind to the savage than to Heii. 
 the civilian. The gentlemen of the Tract Society, we know, 
 differ from us in this particular, for they send all the savages 
 to hell. So do we ; but the tract gentlemen think hell a 
 very bad place. We do not ; it is the i^lace where evil is 
 destroyed.' Again : — ' Society is now quickly ripening for a 
 
 system of universal pardon Public opinion is 
 
 omnipresent ; it searches out the sinner in the darkest and 
 most secret lurking-places of iniquity ; it follows him from 
 country to country ; it haunts him in every city and hamlet, 
 till he repents at last of the rashness which prompted him to 
 sin against a judge who is omnipresent, stern in justice, and 
 will by no means clear the guilty. The power of this 
 influence is rapidly growing, and men are becoming polished 
 in proportion to its growth. Hell-fire is now of no use, and 
 in a few years we believe it will have sufi'ered a considerable 
 diminution in its temperature. It was an admirable sub- 
 stitute for public opinion, but far inferior in influence, as 
 the result has testified.' 
 
 While hell was thus the necessary result of contracted 
 communities, the appropriation of heaven was equally so : — 
 ' It is curious to observe with what certainty every individual 
 nation, tribe, or sect, appropriates to itself the monopoly of 
 moral and religious rectitude, and the approbation of heaven. 
 All history is full of this curious fact.' 
 
 * In no other city but London could such a work as the nth July 
 Shepherd have made its appearance. We have attempted to ^^^^' 
 introduce our doctrine to the public both in Edinburgh and 
 Manchester, without success. Even the press of the Voice 
 of the People refused to print a discourse which contained 
 nothing more obnoxious than is to be found in the columns 
 of the Shepherd. We were advised to send it to ]\Ir. 
 Carlile,^ in London. And pray why go to London, the seat 
 
 1 Carlile, Richard, author of a 'Letter to Sir Robert Peel on 
 Church Reforms.' 'Mr. Carlile is well known to the British public 
 
142 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 of government, to propagate doctrines subversive of the 
 faith of the country, and consequently subjecting the writer 
 and the publisher to legal persecution ? Merely because here 
 there is a greater proportion of liberalised or emancipated 
 minds to extinguish the moral odium of the publication, and 
 consequently to divert the attention of the public and the 
 magistracy from its contents. But what is there, the reader 
 may ask, in the Shepherd to offend the laws of the country ? 
 Only this : it teaches the Unity of God and Devil, and that 
 is blasphemy. Ten or twelve years ago we should have 
 been prosecuted for our doctrine ; but, thanks to Carlile, 
 Taylor, and Owen, we are now perfectly safe, and have no 
 other fear upon us than the bigotry of the people.' 
 
 It is specially characteristic of James Smith's catholicity 
 of mind that he enters into the spirit of, and even reasons in 
 favour of, his opponents. He expects no immediately strik- 
 ing results from his system on this very account, but he 
 continues to sow the seed that will one day mature. * There 
 is no additional happiness acquired by outmarching public 
 opinion. He who increaseth knowledge only increaseth 
 sorrow to himself, if that knowledge is in discord with the 
 public opinion which surrounds him. He loses his good 
 name. He is called mad, blasphemer, infidel, or any other 
 
 title expressive of abhorrence It is a very 
 
 dangerous thing, and requires much prudence and moral 
 courage, to transgress against the spirit of the society which 
 surrounds us. Many, destitute of these qualities, and allured 
 by the delusive paintings of enthusiastic hope and immatured 
 opinions, have foolishly done violence to the spirit of society, 
 treated everything venerated by other men with outrageous 
 contempt, suffered corresponding degradation in their good 
 opinion, lost their influence, their respectability, their friends, 
 and ultimately sunk into the very sediment of society, 
 
 as the champion of Infidelity and Atheism, which he has defended 
 with great zeal, and at a considerable sacrifice of personal liberty and 
 property for many years past.' — Shepherd, 4th April 1835. 
 
PASSION STRONGER THAN REASON. 143 
 
 beyond all hope of recovery. The same law prevails upon a 
 large scale with the intercourse of nations.' This being the 
 case, the adoption of extreme liberal measures by one nation, 
 before others were in accord, would only result in injury to 
 that nation. He consequently — although Progress is the 
 watchword of the Universalists and the spirit by which he 
 is actuated — advocates moderation in the movement of 
 society : — ' That movement necessarily changes as it progresses, 
 and cannot fail to become more and more universal in its 
 views as it draws within its circle a greater amount of the 
 heterogeneous mass of mind which society contains. If the 
 movement appears too rash, and in need of a check to pre- 
 vent a fatal catastrophe to its career, his own judgment will 
 direct him to stand forth as the advocate of the stagnant or 
 retrogressive principle.' 
 
 At the same time, as the political principles adopted by 
 most men depend so much upon their birth and condition, 
 ' with such men reason is of very little use ; they are led by 
 impulse. They will always prefer an address to the passions 
 to one which is addressed to the judgment.' Even this he 
 does not consider objectionable. 'The majority of a party 
 do not think, they feel ; and it is well that it is so. Feeling 
 is the life of the individual and of society. Thought is 
 
 merely its servant, or its prime minister Passion 
 
 always is, and always must be, stronger than reason 
 
 As there is a greater amount of passion than of reason in the 
 individual, so there is also a corresponding greater amount 
 of passion (or feeling) than reason in the public at large; 
 and the few who do think and reason intensely are only of 
 use to direct the public feeling towards a right channel. All 
 
 this is wisely ordered by Nature But in teaching 
 
 a new doctrine the reason must always be preferred to the 
 feelings, in order to present a definite object for the latter to 
 aim at.' 
 
 The fact of the power of feeling constitutes the power of 
 woman, as he enunciates in another paper, where he seeks to 
 
144 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 show that a gathering of facts — or knowledge — is not neces- 
 sarily a grasp of truth. 
 
 * Facts we know as the foundation of universal principles ; 
 and therefore the cavillist may say we ought to treat of 
 insulated facts alone, as in these alone consists eternal truth. 
 We reply, " There is no truth in a fact." What is a fact 
 but merely a guide to the discovery of truth ? Truth is a 
 principle, and if we do not attain the knowledge, the inward 
 perception, comprehension, and incorporation of that prin- 
 ciple, facts are not of the slightest use to us We 
 
 maintain that very few facts are necessary to know the 
 
 truth Of those facts the most important are the 
 
 fundamental facts of all science. ISTow the very first and 
 only fundamental facts of all human knowledge are what we 
 call the loositive and negative forces, but a thousand other 
 names, such as active and passive, male and female, &c., 
 may do quite as well. We maintain that universal nature 
 resolves itself into these two, in all conceivable circum- 
 stances, without a single exception. These, therefore, are 
 the pillars of truth.' 
 
 After summarising his system, he closes his first volume 
 and takes leave of his * flock,' ' with the satisfaction of think- 
 ing that we have not done so because of their desertion.' 
 He again reiterates the necessity for universal principles as 
 a spiritual basis for all practical measures, and hopes to meet 
 22iid August his readers again, if permitted ! ' We shall do the work 
 Shepherd, that the universal (Spirit has designed for us, and we do not 
 desire to do more. We have so much faith in His wisdom 
 and ultimate mercy, that we willingly consign ourselves to 
 His providence. There is a pleasure in dependence which 
 none but dependents know. In life we shall cherish it, 
 because it is consoling ; and at last we shall die, not without 
 fear and without hope — a double negative — but with hope 
 and without fear, the positive and negative, in comfortable 
 union. This is our philosophy. We begrudge not the sectarian 
 believer or infidel his horrific notions of God and of Nature.' 
 
COMPLETION OF ' THE SHEPHERD.' 145 
 
 * I have now finished the Shepherd^ to the great regret of ^th Sept. 
 many, and have received many flattering letters respecting James to 
 it. One I received lately, with a gentleman's crest upon the 
 seal, and written in a very superior style, thanks me for the 
 fifty-two numbers of the Shepherd^ *' the most important and 
 original work the world has seen for a long time," and shows 
 a very correct knowledge of the doctrine in a long disserta- 
 tion on the subject, extending to eight pages. Of course I 
 know nothing of the writers of such letters, but I can judge, 
 by the style and appearance of them, what value ought to 
 be attached to them.' After referring to the political situa- 
 tion, he continues : — ' But Whigs and Tories are both alike in 
 my eyes. I like to see them badgering each other.' 
 
 The completion of this first volume of the Shepherd 
 marked an era in his life; and as sixteen months passed 
 before he was able to continue it, the further volumes were 
 naturally influenced in their character by the studies and 
 labours of the intervening period. 
 
 Throughout the volume the subsidiary papers are all of 
 an instructive and progressive character ; and when he deals 
 with science, as in giving an account of the principles of 
 astronomy, at the request of a correspondent, he does so 
 with clearness and lucidity, and that analogical freshness and 
 novelty which was a marked characteristic of his style. The 
 volume of the Shepherd, therefore, contained an epitome of 
 the most progressive thought of the time. 
 
CHAPTER XIL 
 
 AN INTERLUDE — THE ' WEEKLY HERALD. 
 
 The Sliejjlierd in abeyance, the power of its editor was for a 
 time dissipated over many varied labours. In his letters at 
 this time we get glimpses of his character that have not 
 hitherto been forthcoming, and it is clear that he is becoming 
 more and more one of that irritable fraternity of scribblers 
 whose nervous system is overw^orked, wnose digestion is im- 
 paired, and whose mentality is seriously affected by the ill- 
 used garment of the spirit. 
 
 No doubt he has reason to be irritated. His father had 
 not only aggravated his artistic temperament by his Calvin- 
 istic training and severity, and by thrusting him, nolens 
 volens, into the ministry ; but continued to do so by sending 
 relays of sons, still more deficient in all worldly capabilities, 
 to London to torment him ; some deficient, too, in that charity 
 that covereth a multitude of sins, w^hich to him was a funda- 
 mental point of doctrine. His letters are not, therefore, at 
 this time very pleasant reading, for he is dragged dow^n from 
 the empyrean where he seeks to dwell, and which he has 
 made such efforts to reach. 
 6th Jan. ' To-day I have heard from Micaiah for the first time ; he 
 
 James to scems very comfortable where he is, and I have no doubt 
 J°*^"- -vvill be so. You have no idea of the happiness experienced 
 
 in following a visitation of the Spirit. He has probably 
 more good cause to pity you than you have to pity him ; 
 whether it proves a delusion or not, it is always comfortable 
 at the time, if there be faith accompanying the profession of 
 faith. I have no doubt of the visitation, but having more 
 
AN INTERLUDE — THE 'WEEKLY HERALD.' 147 
 
 experience of these visitations than he or the rest of the 
 family, I do not rely on any individual visitation. The 
 judge is within a man's own mind ; but as a man cannot 
 judge without materials, and materials are only to be acquired 
 by hearing all things, so those who hear not and know not 
 have no means of judging, and their judgment is perfectly 
 useless. The judgment of every man upon theology is 
 foolish, but the more universal the more charitable, so the 
 more true that judgment is. The world, as yet, knows 
 nothing of God. Christianity is a mere branch of theology. 
 The heathen temples could never have been kept up and 
 reverenced as they were without some splendid manifestation 
 of spiritual power; the Oracles of Apollo and Trophonius, &c., 
 were actual visitations of the great Spirit of Xature, who 
 has thus intentionally divided the minds of men upon 
 religion, as he divided their tongues in the intercourse of 
 speech. It is Babel which he is building, and it will be 
 overthrown by its own confusion. But none but those who 
 have come out of the old fudge of the Church can be aware 
 of the silliness and stupidity which it presents to a student 
 of universal theology, or even of such as, like ]\Iic. and 
 others, have imbibed the faith of a modern revelation. It 
 is almost impossible ever to return to it — it is such a deliver- 
 ance to get out of it. There is comfort in following a 
 visitation, and there is comfort in regarding them all as 
 Babel ; but there is very little comfort in the old jog-trot of 
 Protestantism, and it is now so sorely beset that there 
 
 can be no doubt it will die daily I am always 
 
 writing every week in some of the Liberal papers, without 
 my name, and I have a private share in an unstamped paper, London 
 but I say nothing about it. This has given me a sort of ^''^^ ^'^^'^ ' 
 rest during my late illness, without which I should probably 
 never have recovered ; and it is partly a fear of a relapse 
 
 which prevents me from lecturing again, also a 
 
 difficulty in finding a place, as I have lost my old room, 
 which was also too small, though very respectable. I had 
 
148 
 
 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 Espionage 1 
 
 Open- 
 minded. 
 
 Buhver, 
 
 even an LL.D., dressed as well as any Scotch parson, to 
 stand at the door (as elder ?) to receive tickets, and agents of 
 government have also come to see, and expressed themselves 
 satisfied. They were a very decent set of people who came, 
 though not very numerous. As for notoriety, I have none 
 of it, and don't want it ; and in a place like London it is the 
 very thing to play the very devil with a man unless he is an 
 agitator and a bully like O'Connell, and cares for nobody. 
 ]\Iic. is quite right. 
 
 ' There is no Mr. Baines of the Morning Chronicle. There 
 is a Mr, Baines, M.P., proprietor of a Leeds paper. Mr. 
 Black is proprietor and editor of the Morning Chronicle. 
 He has twice inserted an article of mine in his paper. You 
 ought to take in a London weekly paper. The provincial 
 papers are so far behind the age, that unless you read the 
 London papers you cannot tell the state of the country. 
 The Spectator would be a very nice paper for you, or the 
 Examiner. You would then see how society was directing 
 its course. A provincial editor cannot be independent ; he 
 is a mere creature of the petty prejudices of the narrow- 
 minded cattle that he caters for. I read always two daily 
 papers daily — a Whig and a Tory.' The foremost provincial 
 papers are very different to-day. 
 
 * I have never read any of Bulwer's works yet that you 
 once spoke of in your letter, but I know Mrs. AVheeler, his 
 mother-in-law, very well, and have met Mrs. Bulwer at her 
 mother's house. She is a very handsome woman. So is 
 Mrs. ^\Tieeler — one of the most noble women I ever knew. 
 I generally call once a fortnight. I used to call once a 
 week, when I was nearer. She is sister to Sir John Doyle, 
 and niece of the late Sir John Doyle who died last year. I 
 saw the old gentleman a few weeks before he died, and 
 helped him to drink a bottle of Madeira. I never met 
 Bulwer, and Mrs. Wheeler seldom mentions his name. I 
 believe she does not like him much ; he gets the name of 
 being somewhat of a coxcomb, and writing all his Parlia- 
 
THE IRVINGITE CHURCH. 149 
 
 mentary speeches, but he is one of the most popular writers 
 of the day, and makes a good deal of money by his pen. 
 Mrs. Wheeler is a confounded Radical, and has both pub- 
 lished books and written in periodicals frequently. She 
 writes always on one subject — the present condition of 
 women and their rights as members of society and the 
 
 equals of men Hitherto I have been well enough 
 
 provided for, but how long it may be so God only knows ; 
 but I am more tranquil in mind than ever I was in Scotland, 
 and should be very sorry to leave London now that I am 
 naturalised in it.' 
 
 * I received yours per Robert, who arrived here on Tuesday 30th May 
 evening, and is still in town (Monday), but has been staying Dr. i^obert 
 with Mic. since Saturday morning at a Mr. Gordon's, one of smith. 
 the elect lambs of Irvingism. Mic. would not call upon me. 
 He said he did not approve of the principles of the people I 
 stayed with ! Holy man ! It shows very little confidence 
 in his principles, or in the spirit of the true Church, or in 
 his own calling and election, when such nervous fears get 
 the mastery over him. So, as I was less afraid of Mr. Gordon 
 than he was of Mr. Garland, I went to see him. He is out 
 of employment, but quite easy about it, looking a great deal 
 better, fresh, plump, and fairer in complexion than ever. 
 But I could get little information from him. He said he 
 would remain where he was for some time ; he did not 
 know how long. He is waiting, no doubt, for a command or 
 an appointment from the Spirit; and most probably they 
 will appoint him to some small chapel or other.' He then 
 mentions other acquaintances in the same position, but pro- 
 ceeds to a severe criticism of the Irvingite Church, mainly 
 because * the male character of Irvingism is so notorious — 
 that woman lies under the whole force of the original curse 
 amongst them.' After comparing it with the Southcottians, 
 he continues : — * I therefore look with interest on Irvingism, 
 without even the shadow of a suspicion that such horrible fanati- 
 cism as it now teaches can ever possibly be the final truth.' 
 
150 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 Tins Irvingism, to Avliicli he had himself introduced them 
 in its early stage, now took possession of the family at home 
 entirely : — 
 
 * My father, I understand, has turned preacher ; it is all 
 very curious, but all for the best, I have no doubt. It may 
 prove the means of extricating them all from the difficulties of 
 their situation, and of comforting their minds in the midst 
 of trials. It is a comfortable thing to live in a visitation of 
 the Spirit. I know it from experience. It is a sort of 
 romance, and those who are once in it seldom desire to come 
 out.' 
 
 He had hitherto lived in rooms in London, but now — -* I 
 have been for several days past looking out for a house, 
 but find it ver}^ difficult to get one. I am thinking of taking 
 one in my own name, that I may become a householder, and 
 letting part to Garlands. I went to take a very beautiful 
 house to-day — <£26 — six rooms and kitchen, beautifully 
 papered all over, the paper quite new without a soil — but it 
 had just been taken ; the good bargains arc speedily picked 
 up. It is no joke looking for a house in Loudon, and there 
 are really very few to let. Apartments furnished and un- 
 furnished are to be found everywhere, but empty houses are 
 very rare, considering the size of the place. I am thinking 
 of attempting a stamped paper under the new Act, and 
 would be the better of being a householder.' How Londoners 
 of to-day must envy this halcyon time ! 
 Dr. R. Angus * Poor Robert seems to have been brought up in a balloon 
 or a coal-pit, or some place out of the world altogether. I 
 advised him to endeavour to pick him a little more informa- 
 tion respecting the daily occurrences of society, but whether 
 he follows my advice or not I know not. Perhaps it is a 
 part of the wisdom of the party to which he belongs, not to 
 belong to the age in which we live, but to form our minds 
 from the vague and imaginative notions of former times.' 
 After a liberal comparison between the Roman Catholics 
 and Protestants, as persecutors and otherwise — not to the 
 
CARDINAL Wiseman's lectures. 151 
 
 advantage of the latter — he contmues : — ' It is my opinion 
 that the Protestants are injuring their cause sadly by their 
 wild attempts to prejudice the public mind against their 
 religious opponents. But one good is evidently resulting 
 from it — it is bringing on a religious controversy between 
 the two churches. Dr. AViseman, one of the brightest 
 lights of the Catholic Church, has been lecturing here in 
 
 defence of Catholicism I have read the first ten, 
 
 and admire them much. I do not agree with him, indeed, 
 but I am convinced that the Protestants will find it impos- 
 sible to confute him. I see he has also advertised a work 
 on the relationship between Science and Religion — a subject 
 which the Protestants have never yet been able to handle. 
 How he will manage it I know not, but he cannot do it 
 worse than Dr. M'Gill, who told us that the reason why the 
 sun is said to have been created on the fourth day, is that 
 it only shone through the clouds that day for the first time — 
 having been created before — so that it was not created on 
 the fourth day at all — and if not, what proof is there that 
 anything else was created on the day specified; or than 
 Dr. Ure, who, to please the clergy of England and Scotland, 
 maintains that the account of the Creation is literal, in spite 
 of the indisputable evidences of geology, which demonstrate 
 that the world has existed for innumerable thousands of 
 
 years In fact, the clergy are a drag upon the 
 
 wheels of general knowledge. The principal use they seem 
 to be of is to prevent the world from acquiring knowledge 
 
 too quickly and too slovenly Scotland seems to 
 
 me like a country in a mist, and all churches and chapels 
 like the reeky huts of the Highland clans — in whose eyes all 
 perfection is concentrated in their own little selfish family.' 
 
 He has now started his paper formerly proposed : — ' I do 
 not know how I shall get on with my paper. You may 
 have seen a specimen of it in Glasgow already. It is called 
 the London Free Press at present, and we have sometimes 
 sent a thousand a week to Glasgow ; Ave send 
 
152 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERBALIST. 
 
 eighty dozen to ^fanchester, and about the same number to 
 Birmingham. I have always more to do than I can well 
 accomplish, and have plenty of crosses. Still, I am always 
 helping to do some good in demolishing old systems and pre- 
 paring the way for better.' 
 
 He still continues a voluminous correspondence with the 
 cultivated women who formed the main body of his ' party ' 
 in Edinburgh. Personal regard and admiration had first led 
 them to accept his views, and some of them followed him 
 through all the windings of his awakening creed. Others 
 threw off the spell and regained their common-sense, acknow- 
 ledging at the same time that they were happier and more 
 satisfied under the 'visitation.' Their letters show them 
 to have been of marked character, throw^n free from the 
 trammels of orthodoxy, and unprovided at this time with a 
 satisfactory substitute. 
 
 Catherine Walker writes, after a somewhat strong-minded 
 criticism : — 'I have ever believed in a future state, but 
 from what authority I do not know^ ; it must be a hope im- 
 planted in my mind by nature, but who (sic) or Avhere it is 
 to be realised often puzzles and perplexes me.' In this letter 
 she gives us an insight into another correspondent to whom 
 her companions had evidently 'allocated' James Smith. 
 The reference to her is apparently intended as a friendly 
 hint : — ' Miss Forster does not seem at all satisfied with her 
 situation, but it is no wonder ; it is a state of slavery. I 
 am always telling her I wish I saw her well married, and 
 there is not much time to lose ; it is a pity that anyone so 
 fitted to adorn society as Miss Forster should be confined 
 to a schoolroom, subjected to the dominion of a haughty 
 aristocrat, and go twice every Sunday and listen to old Dr. 
 Ritchie and Grant.' 
 
 We get a glimpse of a time when the Modern Athens 
 seems to have ' drawn back for a better spring : ' — 'I am 
 told Edinburgh is falling back in point of wealth. The law 
 has hitherto been its principal suppart, and it is very much 
 
INTELLECTUAL DISSATISFACTION. 153 
 
 on the decline. They are talking of erecting manufactories, 
 and I understand the magistrates have granted a site of 
 ground for the purpose ; but the inhabitants don't like the 
 idea of our fine city being made a manufacturing town.' 
 
 Letters from the members of the scattered flock of Ashton- 1836. 
 under-Lyne still reach him in varied strains, but they 
 point to a comparatively uneducated class of investigators. 
 One who has been turned out of his situation because he 
 was a Unionist, had been chosen as a delegate on various 
 occasions. He writes: — 'I shall be glead to see you 
 at Ashton. You shall be made welkem to my cottage ; you 
 shall have half what I have got. I am still a unchangeable 
 frind and brother ; how glead was I when I hard that you 
 wished my adress ; I feell a brother love for you, and 
 always shall.' 
 
 But although he is receiving letters full of afi'ection, and 
 writing letters which his friends find ' amusing and interest- 
 ing,' the reader feels he is in the centre of a vortex of 
 intellectual dissatisfaction : — 
 
 ' What you say of not feeling yourself suitable for society, 
 is what we all feel in consequence of our faith,' writes Miss 
 Walker ; but he had other causes, hereditary and personal. 
 He has now three brothers in London, but sees little of 
 them. Micaiah, the Irvingite preacher, he finds intolerable 
 as usual, from his spiritual pride and claim to be a ' Mes- 
 senger of God.' After giving some flagrant instances of this 27th October 
 to his elder brother, he continues : — ' They are infinitely james.to 
 worse than the Southcottians. The latter are liberality "^°'^°' 
 itself, compared to such spiritual pride and Pharisaical im- 
 pudence. I have never quarrelled with a Southcottian yet, 
 although I have opposed and abused them all ; but I have 
 never met with an Irvingite who did not seem to be a 
 melancholy, bewildered fanatic' He then proceeds to give 
 exceptions, and to throw the blame on Micaiah's own mind. 
 ' Robert is not yet spoiled in a religious point of view, but 
 they have all been shamefully neglected in speech and 
 
154 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 beliaviour. If tlicy had been sent to a chandler's shop to 
 serve at the counter for a year or two, it would have been 
 more valuable than three sessions at Glasgow College. 
 Joseph might have then been able to find his way round 
 " the blind asylum.' 
 
 But how could lads to whom the world was a ' passing 
 show,' and the ' problem of existence ' infinitely more im- 
 portant than the ' struggle for existence ' be fitted to wrestle 
 in the arena of lifel Even James himself is too deep in 
 these religious philosophisings to be able to grapple with 
 affairs with the customary astuteness of his countrymen. 
 ' I shall not be able to make the paper pay without a little 
 capital, and that is not easy to get. I could easily get £1000 
 to lay out on machinery or type, w4iich becomes its own 
 security, but ready money to throw away, as it were, on 
 advertisements, posting, billing, &c., is not so easily got. I 
 am trying to sell it ; we have about 9000 subscribers. They 
 would i^ay at 4d., but not at 3Jd.' 
 
 In a further letter, in which the sale of the paper is 
 announced, we get an idea of his struggles, and an evident 
 suggestion that he was still providentially provided for in 
 his ' mission.' 
 
 * I have now disposed of the Weeldij Herald to ^Ir. Cob- 
 bett's sons, who published a paper called the Chamjjion, but 
 now called the Champion and Weekly Herald, a copy of 
 which I have sent you. We got about .£430 for it. But 
 ^ve had a good deal of debt on our heads. More than that, 
 in fact. But I shall still get hold of as much as will relieve 
 me of my present difficulties, and enable me to commence 
 
 some other move. It was a sad bother But had 
 
 we had £1000 to play with we might have done wonders. 
 
 I shall be able to send my sisters a present of £5, 
 
 and if I soon get into another way of drawing a regular wage 
 I shall double it. For some time past I have been living 
 upon credit. About three weeks ago I was sadly pinched ; 
 I owed £12 or £14 for livinsj and loddn;?. The 
 
PROVIDENTIALLY PROVIDED FOR. 155 
 
 paper swallowed up everything, and one day I received a 
 parcel directed by an unknown hand, containing a small 
 book and ten sovereigns. The person said he would not 
 miss them, and they might be of use to me. I had never 
 written a letter to him, nor he to me, and the one he sent 
 with the parcel was written with a pencil. I received £o 
 in a similar way about two years ago, when I began the 
 Shepherd; £o at another equally critical time; £2 at 
 another critical time ; and £3 once when I do not exactly 
 remember whether I wanted it or no ! I have thus been 
 carried along with scarcely ever more than £5 in my posses- 
 sion, and am at present, as far as London is concerned, quite 
 solvent. I have had many trials, but it is comfortable to 
 think that I have not been living on credit. I have only 
 borrowed £1 since I came to London, and that single pound 
 was the cause of a coldness between me and the person 
 who lent it me.' 
 
 There is an amusing letter on the * Young Shiloh of Beau- 
 mont Square,' with a copy one from the father, showing a 
 distinct aberration of the usual wild character. The corre- 
 spondent, J. Goslin, is evidently a ' ruthless iconoclast,' and 
 replies to the father, who claims to be King David, in the 
 following strain : — 
 
 * I, as a Republican Equalist, must decline the honour of ipswkh, 
 attending any meeting, either public or private, which has isae. ^^^^ 
 for its object the support of a throne — being compelled by 
 necessity, with my fellow-workmen of this country, to labour 
 hard to support a throne, to the tune of half a million annu- 
 ally ; while the same governing work is done, and infinitely 
 better, in America for only five thousand. I feel my belly 
 quite full of throne-supporting, so that there is no room 
 left for me to support either Solomons, Davids, or any 
 other moonshine thrones which may spring from the " crack 
 skulled " reveries of a disordered brain.' The letter through- 
 out is shrewd and practical, and one wonders how he came 
 into that galley among the other rowers. 
 
156 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERS ALIST. 
 
 I have been unable to trace his literary work at this time. 
 27th Jan. He Writes : — ' I have picked up a few of my pamphlets, and 
 James to made a parcel for you. The most of them are eccentricities, 
 and more calculated to give an insight into the vagaries of 
 the human mind than to communicate real knowledge. But 
 after all, what is real knowledge and M^hat is its value. It 
 is of very little value to many who have much of it, and of 
 much value to many who have little of it.' 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ENGRAVING AND THE ' PENNY SATIRIST.* 
 
 In the same letter in which he announced the sale of the 
 Weekly Herald, James Smith notified to his brother the 
 resumption of the Shepherd : — ' I have announced a second 23rd Nov. 
 volume of the Shepherd, to begin on New Year's day, price ^^^^' 
 3d., fine paper, with a cover and a device of a shepherd and 
 
 his sheep on the cover I have got the Librarian of 
 
 the Royal Asiatic Society to help me with the Shepherd in 
 Oriental subjects ; I think we shall make it much better than 
 last.' In the following letter he is not sanguine about it : — 
 ' I have advertised the Shepherd in half a dozen papers. I 
 shall inquire immediately after Dewar's^ parcel, and send 
 you three numbers. I do not think it will pay.' 
 
 His elder brother, as virtual head of the family, has been 
 writing as to the younger brethren, but the subject is not 
 such as to increase his equanimity : — * I am sorry to hear of 23rd Jan. 
 Joseph's removal, but I am not surprised at it. The spirit james to 
 of the whole of our family has been killed by all being "^^^' 
 brought up to the same trade, and driven into it without 
 preparation, instruction, or experience. It is a profession 
 which anybody may follow, in fact, without experience, 
 
 and therefore a poor one Moreover, Joseph is 
 
 evidently a boy who must be pushed through the world.' 
 In this irritable condition, he continues: — 'What makes 
 you esquire me in addressing my letters. I don't want such 
 titles. I am not entitled to the appellation at anyrate ; 
 and suppose I were, I think it so very insignificant that I 
 
 ^ Bookseller, Perth. 
 
158 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 prefer my plain name. "What was an esquire? a knight's 
 attendant — the fellow who acted as a sort of valet to a 
 rambling freebooter or licensed murderer — Robin Hood and 
 Little John were knight and esquire. It is a species of 
 genteel flunkey to a landed proprietor. I would rather be 
 a plain citizen ; the sober and peaceful inhabitants of towns 
 and cities have nothing to do with such titles. The Repub- 
 lican Americans sport them, I see. Their laws prohibit 
 them from going beyond esquire, but they show their pro- 
 pensity for names of eclat by going as far as the laws permit. 
 But how ridiculous it is, after all, that there should be a 
 nation of squires, and not a knight amongst them. When 
 the age of chivalry revives, the knights-errant will not be 
 at a loss for attendants.' 
 
 Meanwhile, he himself, a modern knight-errant, proceeds 
 1st Jan. with the Shejjherd 'upon the same general principles as be- 
 Shej'herd. fore. The analysis of religious opinions will be our chief 
 employment Our principal object will be the cor- 
 rection of the errors, abuses, and illiberal prejudices which 
 belong to the three great classes of Theologians, Deists, and 
 Atheists — the Tories, the Whigs, and the Destructives of 
 Religion. We shall set our faces against all these, upon the 
 principles of Pantheism, adopted by the wise and the good 
 in all ages, but hitherto rejected by sectarians and fanatics. 
 In doing so, we take no man, no books as our standard, 
 except the Old and !N'ew Testaments of IS^ature and Provi- 
 dence. The first treats of divine nature as revealed in 
 Space, the other in Time. The first includes all the demon- 
 strable and experimental sciences ; the second devotes itself 
 to the subordinate but most vital consideration of the history 
 of human nature and of social experience.' The influence 
 of the 'Librarian of the Royal Asiatic Society,' or the 
 studies that have led Smith towards him, are manifest in 
 the earliest numbers. The probable common origin of all 
 languages, then looming upon the world through the Sanscrit 
 revival ; Mr Jervis' claim to a common origin of all weights 
 
SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY OPPOSED. 159 
 
 and measiu-GS, the original standard being a pendulum vibrat- 
 ing seconds at the mid-latitude of 45 degrees ; the fact that 
 * the industry of human learning is yearly discovering some 
 new features of common relationship amongst all the re- 
 ligions of the world ' — since then so lucidly handled by Max 
 Miiller — are all worked into his system of Xature. He 
 holds that whereas anciently God and Nature, the male and 
 female, were studied and worshipped together, now — 'The 
 study of ^NTature, or Science, is in vehement opposition to 
 the study of God or Theology ; they ought to be in harmony ; 
 the two together constitute Truth ; Truth is to be got from 
 neither; the Lingam and the Yoni are equally defective 
 apart. The Fanatic, the Sectarian, the Vulgar Christian, is 
 a follower of the Lingam ; the Materialist, the Infidel, the 
 Deist, the Atheist, is a follower of the Yoni, to use the 
 Oriental style of speech. The Pantheist is a follower of 
 both. Nature is now more than ever asserting her rights. 
 The time of the emancipation of the female is at hand.' 
 
 'The seed of the woman (Nature) shall bruise 
 
 the head of the serpent (superstition).' 
 
 He has retained all his old boldness of investigation and 
 subtlety of argument. In discussing the ' folly of the con- 
 troversy between believers and infidels,' he holds that 
 miracles have nothing to do with the truth of doctrine. 
 ' For if it be an established custom with God and Nature i5th Jan. 
 
 1837 
 
 to present fallacies to the senses, to exercise our reasoning Shepherd. 
 faculties, as we find to be the case in the infancy of every 
 science, why should not the same law be observed in Reve- 
 lation, which, like the rising and setting of the sun, is first 
 presented as a delusion, and left to human ingenuity to 
 
 unveil We most decidedly reject the authority 
 
 of miracles or any other such works, however wonderful, 
 as evidence in behalf of abstract religious opinions.' A 
 miracle * is an outward sign, and is inferior in authority to 
 a mental impression. For of what use can an outward 
 miracle, addressed to the senses and the faith, and not to the 
 
160 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 understanding J be, but to impose upon the mind an illegiti- 
 mate conviction.' 
 
 He is at this time recognising the fact that he is not the 
 only worker in the field he has chosen, and in his Gallery 
 of Pantheism he begins with Giordano Bruno, 'not because 
 he has been the first among the modern" philosophers to 
 profess Pantheism, but because his writings have been the 
 mine which has offered the German philosophers a world of 
 riches, and because his opinions are, in many respects, 
 analogous to those professed in the Shepherd.^ 
 
 In the following number he formulates the principles of 
 the Shepherd as a heading. They * may be called Pantheism, 
 Universalism, or Catholicism, or by any other word which 
 expresses universality. Pantheism implies that everything, 
 great or small, good or evil, wise or foolish, is the result of 
 the active and conscious operation of the universal male 
 (spirit) in co-operation with the universal female (matter). 
 Consequently, all doctrines, systems, customs, and morals 
 positively originate in God and Nature (jointly), and form 
 component parts of a system of progressive training for 
 mankind. But the only true religion is the acknowledg- 
 ment of this fact, and the retirement of faith and worship 
 within the true sanctuary of the heart and mind. It is 
 1st Feb. chiefly in the western world that they have adopted the 
 ^sSpherd scientific mode of ascending through Nature to Nature's 
 God. Nature is veiled in the East and so is woman, her 
 image and representative. She is crippled in China, con- 
 cealed and imprisoned in Persia and Turkey, and regarded 
 as chattel, or private property, in every country in the world. 
 But her veil is partly removed in Europe, for there the 
 secrets of Nature are being discovered — there the Mother God 
 is beginning to reveal herself, as alone she can be revealed, 
 in the demonstrations of physical science.' 
 
 The appreciation of science does not blind him to its 
 15th Feb. defects, however : — ' It is not knowledge but moral feeling 
 Shepherd, which is the immediate cause of virtue and happiness 
 
SCIENCE ALONE UNSATISFACTORY. 161 
 
 Science Avill never supersede religion in Sunday popular Delusions of 
 instruction. Science is too limited in its sphere of thought ; 
 it addresses the intellect only. It ought to be associated 
 with religion. It is a sieve through which nothing will 
 pass but that which is in harmony with Nature's laws, and 
 though it cannot supply the place of religion, nor satisfy the 
 religious feeling, it is well calculated to put false religion to 
 the test, and bring to light the hidden mysteries of Provi- 
 dence As for the common class of Infidels, they 
 
 are as infinitely diversified as the Christian sects. And yet 
 they seem all to agree in this, that science can satisfy every 
 rational mind. For heaven's sake let us have a little 
 common sense along with it. Common sense without science 
 will be more socially and morally useful than science without 
 common sense.' ^ 
 
 Yet he will not admit the ruder explanations of Eevela- ist March 
 tion : — ' In the whole list of arguments ever employed by shepherd. 
 controversialists, or devised by logicians, there are not two 
 of more unmeaning, ungenerous, and inconclusive a nature 
 than those two of "Imagination" and "Imposture." They 
 are pitiful resources of the religious, world, on the one hand, 
 to get rid of the ascription of the authorship of evil to 
 God, and of the atheistical world, on the other, to account 
 for a class of phenomena which puzzles its chemical philo- 
 sophy And what can science do to settle such 
 
 dispute? Science never can satisfy the 
 
 inquiring mind — the higher he goes, the nearer he approaches 
 the religious prmciple, and unless he dips his head into this 
 empyreal cap, his science is nothing more than a body without 
 a head, a collection of imperfect causes without a bond of 
 union. The head of science is reliction.' 
 
 In a further exposition, with Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater 
 
 1 Many of his readers will wonder where his common sense comes in, 
 and yet it is omnipresent once you accept his premises. He has also 
 begim giving those ' replies to correspondents, ' whose shrewd humour 
 and sound sense made them afterwards so famous. 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 l-5th March 
 
 1837. 
 
 Shepherd. 
 
 :ilst March 
 1847. 
 
 Shepherd. 
 Justice! 
 
 treatise on 'Geology and Mineralogy' as a text, he pro- 
 ceeds : — ' The grand hyperbole of hell-fire may be merely an 
 intellectual fable, disguising a simple moral truth. All this 
 we believe. But does the Doctor believe it ? Xo ! Even 
 while the walls of ancient Catholicism and Protestantism 
 are crumbling around him — even while he himself is com- 
 mitting to paper that it is " moral, not intellectual truths," 
 which are conveyed by Revelation, he belies his own prin- 
 ciple by upholding the barbarous theology of an unscientific 
 and illiterate age of the world's minority ! ' 
 
 Revelation he holds to be smoke that science must blow 
 away : — ' God speaks truth and falsehood in one breath, and 
 makes it the task of man to sift the compound. This we 
 regard as the royal prerogative of Deity. It is an act of 
 wisdom and of goodness on His part to us. The search of 
 truth is our trade, as rational beings. We have no right to 
 expect it unveiled by Revelation.' 
 
 In reply to a correspondent who claims the ' materiality of 
 the Deity,' he writes : — ' We have not the slightest objection 
 to God's materiality. In fact, there is nothing material but 
 God, who is the very basis or substratum of matter. But 
 we are equally in love with the spirituality of God, because 
 we know it to be impossible to distinguish between the two 
 modes of being. Spirit and matter are one, but double only 
 in respect to modality or manner of existence.' It is curious 
 to note his instinctive contempt for the ignorant multitude, 
 combined with his hope of a future universal suffrage. But 
 he insists upon their prior education, not in knoivledge, but 
 in the first principles of religion and morality : — ' Justice ! 
 the people want justice ! What sort of justice do they want 
 — natural or unnatural ? If they want natural justice, where 
 
 can they procure it ? Agitation may be a very useful 
 
 thing, but it is merely the howling of wolves after all 
 
 There is a want of sound philosophy at the bottom of all the 
 gibberish of politics.' His beau-ideal of government, or 
 Utopia, is then succinctly defined, and the second volume 
 
UNIVERSALISM WILL LOSE ITS SMITHISM. 163 
 
 of the ShejjJierd ends, explained by the simple fact that 
 ' there is a considerable loss weekly, in its publication, which 
 
 at present I cannot afford Perhaps the world uses me 
 
 quite as respectfully as I use it. I do not much admire it. 
 There is something in every corner of it I respect, but some- 
 thing also in every corner which I despise. I admire the 
 learning of the Church, but I despise its metaphysical and 
 moral philosophy or theology. I admire the good intentions 
 of the people, but I dislike their intolerance, their ignorance, 
 and their illiberality. I am partially connected with all 
 parties, but fully sympathise with none. Under such cir- 
 cumstances, I even wonder at my own success. But I shall 
 succeed still better — that is, the fundamental principles of 
 
 Universalism will take root in the public mind They 
 
 are not mine. Truth belongs to no man ; it is divine property. 
 The error or imperfection with which it is mixed up belongs 
 to me, as the individual ; the truth to God, as the universal. 
 By passing through other minds it will be purified and 
 refined, illustrated, and confirmed. It will lose its Smithism; 
 but the basis of the doctrine taught in the Shepherd must be 
 everlasting as the sun in the heavens. It is not founded on 
 any one aspect of Nature, but upon universal nature and 
 universal Providence.' 
 
 He addresses his readers with peculiar directness and 
 simplicity, taking them wholly into his confidence : — ' In Legendsand 
 the meanwhile, I am amusing myself two or three hours a 
 day in collecting other materials, some of which I have 
 already begun to publish in a little penny weekly production, 
 called Legends and Miracles^ in which a number of interesting 
 questions in history are brought together in a manner not to 
 be found, as far as I am informed, in any other work. I 
 give them without comment and without passing any judg- 
 ment upon the testimony, which I have taken care to record ; 
 but they are curious documents, which will at least, if 
 properly used, teach us all to form our opinions with extreme 
 caution, and suspend our judgments upon many opinions 
 
164 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 "vvliicli i">ass current for what are called facts, in the cant 
 phrase of the day.' 
 
 During this interregnum he translated Za/lig, from the 
 French of Voltaire, publishing it with Parnell's Hermit as 
 an appendix. In ex2:)lanation, he says: — 'The episode of 
 the Angel Jefrad, however, is evidently borrowed from 
 Parnell's Hermit. The story is originally Oriental, according 
 to Dr. Goldsmith, and is found in Morels Dialogues and 
 HowelVs Letters. It is a beautiful illustration of the uni- 
 versal truth that " God is the author of evil as well as of 
 good." AYe also find from his letters that he had been 
 4th_Arni busily engaged otherwise : — 'I have sent you a large sheet 
 James to called England at One View, which I got up in the month of 
 January, and in six weeks it cleared all its expenses, and is 
 now paying very well. I am getting up a similar sheet of 
 the History of England, with a woodcut. I am even drawing 
 and cutting the engraving myself, for I have added that of 
 wood-engraver to my other occupations. I tried it one day 
 for my amusement; found I could handle the tools very 
 easily. I did one little engraving for an edition of the Forty 
 Thieves, for a trial. I made a horrible-looking piece of work 
 of it, but still, better than many of the woodcuts you see in 
 frontispieces of penny and twopenny books ; but in doing it 
 I got experience, and I find I am getting on with a large 
 block of the murder of the two princes in the Tower tolerably 
 w^ell. I am hacking away at it every evening after tea till 
 eleven or twelve at night. I want to learn it ; that is my 
 principal motive, and I am provided with all the necessary 
 apparatus. Since I came to London I have drawn, I believe, 
 fifty or sixty sketches for woodcuts. It is a good trade. I 
 wish Joseph had learned it. I believe I could soon make 
 10s. a day at it. Should other things fail me it may prove 
 a resource. It is a good thing to be able to undertake 
 
 such things There was a tremendous demand last 
 
 week for some papers The Weeldy Chronicle office 
 
 was literally besieged, and a gentleman told me that he saw 
 
NEW SUPPORT FOR 'SHEPHERD.' 165 
 
 Holt, its manager, give a policeman 5s. to drive away tlie 
 customers from the door; he could not serve them. This 
 Holt is a most extraordinary fellow ; always in prison and 
 always out of it — a very devil for scheming. In setting 
 up the Chronicle he even made a procession through the 
 town with all sorts of musical instruments, flags, &c., and 
 raised a mob, and got a report in all the papers, which was a 
 imiversal advertisement ; got into debt with half a dozen 
 stationers, the last of which seized the paper, and now keeps 
 it, but is obliged to keep Holt on it at the rate of £8 a week, 
 for he knows that Holt would and could bring it to nothing 
 in a twinkling. For some time in his trouble we gave Holt 
 lOs. a week for writing little paragraphs. It is a horrible 
 competition to drive. I am very glad I am out of it. I 
 never wish to have to do with a paper again.' By this he 
 means, as a commercial transaction, and a stamped article, no 
 doubt ; for his next letter is full of his periodicals, existing 
 and prospective. He had proposed to resume the Sheplierdj 
 if there were a hundred readers who were willing to subscribe 
 a guinea each in advance : — 
 
 ' I have announced the revival of the Shepherd here at sth June 
 IJd. A friend in the country (Gloucestershire) has offered James to 
 me .£100 to carry it on. He or she has already sent me 
 £30, exclusive of the £100 promised to be paid quarterly, 
 with £5 additional for advertising it — in all £135. By this 
 means I shall be able to proceed. There is no name given, 
 and in answering the letters sent me I give no address, 
 but merely say, to he left till called for at the Gloucester 
 Post-office. I was told some time ago of some families of 
 rank that read the Shepherd in that quarter. I have no Shepherd. 
 doubt it is the same party ; there are more than one. If I 
 am correct, one of the parties is a lady of title. They have 
 also offered me any hook 1 require. Under these auspices I 
 am once more on the waters^ with what success I cannot 
 
 divine I have an anonymous thing called the Penny Penny 
 
 Satirist fijing about at present, and selling about 15,000 a'" 
 
1C6 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 week. It is paying just now, but the sportsmen may soon 
 bring it down. It is ticklish work. It is an original, and 
 seems to be a tolerable good hit — no news nor politics, but 
 as near them as possible, so that it is better liked by many 
 than a newspaper. One week I gave the proceedings of the 
 House of Pismires — an imaginary parliament — which was 
 well liked. This week there is a report of a great public 
 meeting of servant girls at the " Maid and Magpie." Of 
 course all stuff, and I won't acknowledge it. It is quite 
 innocent, however. A week or two ago a correspondent 
 wrote us a letter commenting on something we had said. 
 "We told him in reply next number that we were not respon- 
 sible one week for what we said the last, for our opinions 
 were changing every day, and sometimes three or four times 
 a day — that that very day we were Kadicals before dinner, 
 Whigs during dinner, and Tories after it — and that no man's 
 opinion was worth a rush on any subject until he had turned 
 his coat, dyed it all colours, and worn it threadbare on both 
 sides. But the principal use of such papers is for opening the 
 trade. They are actually writing from Belfast for the Penny 
 Satirist I wish we had an agent in Dundee; he might 
 sell five or six hundred a week. We have fellows who clear 
 10s. a day by selling them in the street, but the brutes go 
 
 idle the rest of the week Holt — that I spoke of in 
 
 my last as having raised the Weekly Chronicle to a circulation 
 of 100,000 for several weeks — was cashiered two or three 
 weeks ago, and the circulation is decreasing by thousands. 
 He immediately started against us, but we have fairly beat 
 him this time. He is an amazingly active fellow, but he has 
 lost his character for honesty. The fact is, however, he 
 merely squanders money profusely, whether it be his own or 
 
 other people's ; he secretes nothing There is no 
 
 weekly organ of the ministry ; in fact, I may say there is 
 scarcely a daily one. Papers are now ashamed of being 
 thought dependent on a ministry, and it is only an evening 
 paper that will descend so low. The morning papers are 
 
CIRCULATION OF THE 'PENNY SATIRIST.' 167 
 
 supposed to be more independent than the government 
 itself. The Radicals cannot support a daily paper. The 
 Constitutional does not sell 1000, and it is nearly £10,000 
 in debt already. The True Sun is also a losing concern. 
 The Tory papers are the richest. The Times and the 
 Morning Herald are the finest newspaper property in the 
 world. The new stamp-law has produced little or no effect 
 on the daily press. It has only created one newspaper (the 
 Constitutional), which would have been better had it never 
 been born.' 
 
 ' The Penny Satirist has been above 40,000 a week, but zn\ Nov. 
 
 1S37 
 
 several scamps have tried to put us down — some by stealing james to 
 our name, and others by a rival publication and underselling. '^°''"' 
 We have been obliged to lower our prices to put the latter 
 down, otherwise it would be a fine property. It has a fine 
 circulation, and is read by all classes.' ^ He seeks, as usual, 
 to impress his ' respectable ' elder brother with the fact that 
 he is not pandering to the mob, so continues : — ' I was told 
 by a gentleman, who is intimate with some of the foreign 
 embassies, that in dining at Buckingham Palace this ambas- 
 sador said he saw the Countess of Leiningen, the Queen's 
 sister-in-law, with the Penny Satirist in her hand. This 
 same gentleman sends regularly a copy to the Duchess of 
 Somerset, and this morning the gentleman who machines 
 
 ^ Mr. Newton Crosland writes, 17th April 1892 : — ' I cannot tell 
 you mucli about the Peniuj Satirist, and I do not imagine that 
 the authorities would find room in the museum for such a publica- 
 tion. Of course, fifty-four years ago a penny paper was a much 
 rougher article than what we should expect to get for the same 
 money nowadays. The Penny Satirist was one sheet (4 pages), the 
 size of an ordinary newspaper ; but it was not a newspaper in the 
 ordinary acceptation of the term, as it was exempt from the news- 
 paper stamp, and it did not live on advertisements. The type was 
 worn, the paper common, the woodcuts coarse, and its whole appear- 
 ance vulgar and disreputable from an artistic point of view ; but under 
 Mr. Smith's superintendence nothing was allowed to appear in its 
 columns of a demoralising character. He managed to make its 
 contents respectable.' 
 
1G8 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 the paper — a large printer in London, who is worth consider- 
 able property — told me that, in calling on a barrister of good 
 l^ractice in town, he saw the Penny Satirist, Avith othei 
 papers, lying on his drawing-room table. The circulation of 
 the paper, therefore, is not confined to the poor, although 
 they are our best patrons. We have every reason to believe 
 that the Queen herself has frequently read it. We have 
 always a moral end in view, however we may disguise it. 
 We are thus engaged in propagating certain ideas through- 
 out the whole kingdom when our apparent object is only to 
 amuse others and benefit ourselves. It is impossible to cal- 
 culate the impression we have made, but it must be consider- 
 able. For the last four years I have, every week almost, in 
 some shape or another, addressed twice as many people as 
 any clergyman in the country, and at present I may even 
 reckon my weekly congregation to be 100,000 more than the 
 whole adult population of Glasgow ; and though there is a 
 lightness in the manner in which they are addressed, there 
 is so very little to teach them, so very little that we want to 
 imjDress upon them, that we can scarcely fail to hammer it into 
 His object, the most of them. The principal thing that I want to teach 
 is, that morals are not to be taught by mere precept, or by 
 preaching and praying, but by the conditions in which men 
 are placed, and that the best way to Christianise mankind is 
 to arrange society in such a manner as will develop the good 
 
 and not the evil in human nature Morality can 
 
 never grow in poverty, ignorance, and filth, and what means 
 are taken to remove this poverty, ignorance, and filth? Does the 
 government enforce cleanliness, or the education of children, 
 or does it provide schools of industry 1 Xo. Children are 
 born by chance, educated by chance, and put to a trade, or 
 no trade, by chance. Those who have no trade (and it is 
 not their fault), if they have any spirit, steal ; if they have 
 no spirit, beg, and are taken up as vagrants and punished as 
 thieves ; they meet with thieves in prison ; they there learn 
 that they may just as well steal when they come out ; and 
 
NECESSITY FOR SANITATIOX. 169 
 
 thus the very puuishment they receive confirms them in 
 crime. There are thousands in London who are sensible of 
 this, hundreds in the legislature who are sensible of it, but 
 it is no easy matter to change a system. The outcry must 
 be very loud, apparently, before they venture to change it. 
 But it is the era of change, and every year must bring some 
 innovation, or some energetic attempt to enforce one.' 
 
 ' Irvingism here is never heard of. I have not heard it 
 mentioned or seen it alluded to in j^rint for a long time. I 
 suppose they are pursuing the even tenor of their way as 
 usual.' The leading article, he tells us elsewhere, is the 
 only portion of the Satirist that he personally writes, and 
 he is full of other work at this time also. ' I am making 
 preparations for writing a history of Modern Prophecy. I 
 have been urged to do it by one of the editors of Fraser's 
 Magazine.^ We do not know that this ever went beyond 
 the phase of ' materials.' 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 'Our doctrine is more a revelation of what is taught ns 
 by our universal Mother Nature, than a scheme or plan of 
 our own. No plan will stand but the ultimate, which is 
 guarded and supported by all the laws of our physical, 
 1st July moral, and intellectual nature ; but mankind may be obliged 
 ^Shepherd. ^0 make many unsuccessful attempts before they arrive at 
 this ultimate, if, indeed, it can be attained. Acting upon 
 these principles, we are not political bigots, and cannot 
 quarrel with other men upon financial, commercial, or juris- 
 prudential speculations.' 
 
 In this first number of the third volume of the Shepherd, 
 he explains that no political agitator has reverted to first 
 principles except Mr. Owen and himself : — ' Our principal 
 objection to Mr. Owen is that he has materialised society, or 
 rather, that he would, if he could, materialise it. Mr. Owen 
 has a moral end in view, and a very good and benevolent 
 end. He has based his system upon an abstract principle, 
 viz., the principle of moral necessity in the formation of 
 character. But this is not an ultimate principle, nor an in- 
 telligent principle, nor an intelligible principle ; it is 
 
 a walking spectre — the great power of Nature, which confers 
 
 all life and consciousness, and yet seems to have none 
 
 Creatures of Circumstances ! Anything but life in the 
 Creator ! What extreme caution is employed to exclude the 
 principle of universal vitality from the system ! Sometimes 
 it is necessity, sometimes circumstances, or a combination of 
 circumstances — but never, never, never is the principle of 
 
OWENISM WANTS LIFE. 171 
 
 universal life adopted as a basis.^ Upon tins latter principle 
 we take our stand. It is for want of tins principle of 
 universal life that Owenisni cannot live.' 
 
 In this new confession of his faith, in which he tries con- 
 clusions with his old coadjutor Owen, he does so with all 
 regard, but considers that Owen's training has been such as to 
 prevent him infusing this principle of life into Owenism, of 
 which it is susceptible, but which it lacks. 'Owen has 
 many friends who abjure infidelity as a principle of action.' 
 Mr. Finch has sought unsuccessfully to graft it on Chris- 
 tianity. 'But we shall, in an especial manner, come into 
 contact, sometimes collision, with Owenism; and the prin- 
 ciple upon which we shall be guided in treating of this 
 system is — the most fervent respect for Mr. Owen as a man 
 — respect, also, for his system, as a beau-ideal of social, 
 mechanical morality ; but in respect to imagination, and all 
 its charming offspring, we must treat the system as a vacuum, 
 which I^atare abhors, and which must be filled up. Imagi- 
 nation is too strong to be put down. It is the strongest 
 power in Mature. It is the very essence of living being. If 
 it is not a reality, as some people choose to express them- 
 selves, it is at least the father, the creator of realities, and 
 therefore above, beyond, greater than a reality. All pro- 
 gress is moved by it, all being is elevated by it, rudeness 
 is polished by it ; it beautifies deformity, and makes beauty 
 more enchanting; it illuminates darkness, and makes light 
 itself more visible ; it alleviates pain and enhances pleasure ; 
 and wherever it is actively engaged, either in productive 
 industry or in the cultivation of the fine arts, or in the 
 working out of the inspirations of a universal faith, it is 
 sure to be productive of pleasurable sensations, both to our- 
 selves and others.' 
 
 1 He elsewhere observes, with reference to Falloppio's theory as to 
 fossils, that they were formed by ' the tiwiuUuary movements of ter- 
 restrial exhalations' — this is quite as good a reason as 'circumstances,' 
 or ' combination of circumstances,' for life and organisation. 
 
172 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 An abstract of all the principal social systems is given in 
 the volume, as well as a ' History of Socialism/ peculiarly 
 interesting at the present time, and he is greatly pleased to 
 commence the volume with Her Majesty's accession, as a 
 symbol of that female principle and female emancipation he 
 considered so vital. This docs not prevent him criticising 
 the first proclamation of her Majesty, which 'was one of a 
 peculiarly moral character.' It included this sentence, which 
 he treats with his customary keen logic : — * We do hereby 
 require and command them (that is, her subjects), and every 
 of them, decently and reverently to attend the worship of 
 God on every Lord's day, on pain of our highest displeasure, 
 and of being proceeded against with the utmost rigour that 
 may be by law.' He continues : — ' The Queen, notwithstand- 
 ing her excellent education, has evidently not learned the 
 mode of making men and women religious ; and the Bishops, 
 her councillors in pious affairs, are so screwed down by oaths, 
 and articles, and creeds, and constitutions, and old forms, 
 and private interests, that it is quite impossible for them to 
 adopt any other means than those which have been employed 
 from time immemorial, and which time immemorial has de- 
 clared to be ineffectual.' 
 
 Hitherto he has been dealing with Universalism as a prin- 
 ciple. 'Some people have said that the Shepherd is not 
 practical, it has not a practical tendency. We shall bring 
 such people to the test, and try whether they or we best 
 understand the principles of a practical system.' AYith this 
 view he proceeds to compare the systems — as working 
 systems — of Owen, the Protestants, and the Jesuits; con- 
 cluding that the Society of Jesus is the most perfect model 
 of organisation which has ever yet been tested by experience. 
 'Protestantism has rejected the visible head; Owenism 
 rejects visible and invisible; Catholicism employs both. 
 
 There is no other system but the Catholic; the 
 
 others are not systems at all How very simple 
 
 and beautiful are the fundamental practical principles of life 
 
THE JESUITS IX PARAGUAY. 173 
 
 — unity, subordination, zeal ; and Low strange the infatuation 
 that will lead men away from them, to entertain the hope of 
 organizing a practical system without them ! ' After show- 
 ing that Owen can neither create zeal, subordination, nor 
 unity, he returns to the 'splendid unity' of the Jesuits, 
 holding that they were individually free, and that ' there is 
 no slavery equal to that of unruly members which despise 
 the head and its authority. It is well known that the 
 Jesuits were the most free and most devoted of all the 
 Catholic orders ! The head was chosen by the mem- 
 bers, and voluntarily invested with authority ; bnt, when 
 chosen, he was a head in deed, and not in name only. It 
 was the voluntary principle choosing one master to escape 
 from many.' 
 
 In this article there is one of those comparisons which 
 were so peculiarly his own, and so characteristic of his 
 analogical intellect. He refers to Protestantism. 'It is a 
 miserable, sickly system, a mule begotten by Catholicism 
 upon the mare, or she-ass, of democracy, but quite unable to 
 propagate its own likeness, for Avant of the principle of 
 germination.' 
 
 After a liberal and able comparison of the success of the 
 Jesuits in Paraguay and elsewhere, wherever they had power, 
 with that of other religions or systems, he adds : — ' Where 
 do you imagine all this superiority on one side lies 1 In dis- 
 cipline,' and in zeal. He is, of course, not blind to their 
 failings : — ' Their religious principles being defective, they 
 found themselves paralysed, and obliged to employ tactics to 
 confront their adversaries. These tactics were very loose 
 and immoral, but the opposition of their adversaries was by 
 no means more conducive to virtue. We must judge them 
 by comparison,' and the comparison in morals is to their 
 advantage. In explaining their exclusive system in Para- 
 guay, he adds a pregnant note : — ' AVe have no doubt that this 
 severity on the part of the Jesuits was necessary to jDreserve 
 their community. The corruption of morals that prevailed 
 
Free trade. 
 
 174 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 around them was too powerful for the resistance of a small 
 society. It is only when such a social system becomes 
 almost universal, that what is generally called freedom can 
 begin, just as Free Trade cannot be established in one coun- 
 try without being established in all. So that it is evident 
 that, without a general congress of nations, none of those 
 great social objects for which philanthropists are striving 
 can be attained.' 
 
 But how about Authority? Pedigree has much to do 
 
 2->ndJuiy with it, he thinks. 'A mere novelty is always despised. 
 
 Shepumi Jesus Christ told the Jews that He did not come to destroy 
 the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them Chris- 
 tianity runs back as far as we can see Hence we 
 
 calculate, as the Yankees cautiously express themselves, that 
 in the progress of society the same system of grafting 
 hitherto practised must be kept up, and the Authority of 
 the old combined with the liberality and reasonableness of 
 the new.' In fact he is afraid of subversive measures. 
 'The just are more outrageous in their disagreement than 
 the unjust. Their zeal infuriates them,' and consequently 
 at^reement is impossible. A President to please a hundred is 
 an impractical machine. ' It is imagined that if representa- 
 tives were chosen by the whole population " all would be 
 well." Now this is a system without a head at all,' because 
 the president is merely the chairman with a veto, in place of 
 the ruler upon whose conduct the people have a veto. ' If a 
 ruler's modes of action are in conformity with the people's 
 notions of right and wrong, the ruler is, by that very fact, 
 invested with power supreme. He receives it from the will 
 of the people. This is the beau-ideal of liberty. Moreover, 
 it is monarchy. It is also democracy. It is democratical 
 monarchy.' Indeed, he indicates nothing superior to our 
 own constitution, with representatives from an educated and 
 moral community, and consequently less gabble in parlia- 
 ment and more real power in the ruling head, so long as it 
 was wisely administered. 
 
DRAMA OF GOD AND DEVIL. 175 
 
 In this number there is a curious example of the * con- 
 suming zeal ' of Joseph Wolff, Apostle of Jesus Christy as he 
 signs himself in a bold scrawl some seven years previous, 
 addressed to the Sardinian Consul-General for Syria. His 
 brutal bigotry in connection Avith the St. Simonians brings 
 down a strong rebuke, only too well-deserved, while the 
 ' force of spirit ' of the young convert appeals to Smith's 
 sympathy. In every department he seeks to take a chari- 
 table view, and yet a bold and original one. In answer to 
 inquiries about the Korati : — ' As a prophet we regard 
 Mahomet as a true messenger ; as a historian, we regard him 
 as a notorious, but not a wilful, liar. The same may be said 
 of the Hindoo books. The great superiority of the Bible 
 over all other books of the kind lies in this, that its his- 
 torical records are not revelations The historical 
 
 Eible will stand, because it is human. The historical Koran 
 will fall, because it is divine. The historical trumperies of 
 the Hindoos will also fall. But that peculiar portion of 
 revelation in each, which does not contain a confusion of 
 revelation with human science, will stand ; and that portion, 
 we say, will be found to be the same in all — and future 
 generations, when they have separated the wheat from the 
 chaff, will find, to their astonishment, that the wheat of all 
 religions was the same, and that men were only quarrelling 
 about the chaff.' It is no doubt this feelinf? that induces 20th July 
 
 1837 
 
 him to think that if the religion of Christ in its original shepherd 
 simplicity were organised on universal principles, it would 
 best realise his ideal. He has early grasped the fact that 
 true Christianity is the great leveller, the true democracy, 
 the philosophy and the politics as well as the religion of the 
 multitude. 
 
 Again, as to God and Devil : — ' Perhaps the prologue to 
 Job is the closest approximation to a correct drama of God 
 and Devil that the spirit of poetry has on record. It is 
 astonishing that the epic genius has not pursued the idea. 
 It can only be accounted for by the corrugation of the schools 
 
176 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 of theology and the public taste. The Satan of Job is neither 
 a liar nor a fiend ; he tries Job, to see if he would curse God 
 in poverty. The victory is fairly divided between Satan and 
 God.' 
 ■J6tii Aug. In an article entitled ' Messiah's Kingdom,' we have a bit 
 
 Shepherd, of autobiography. He acknowledges having been captivated 
 by the idea of the Messiah's personal reign upon earth, ere 
 he, before the close of the year 1828, 'overcame this diffi- 
 culty, or rather this absurdity, by the discovery that the 
 true Messiah was a divine principle, or, in other words, the 
 Spirit of God manifested in the adoption of a beneficent 
 ruling principle by human society. It is a dreamy doc- 
 trine, and very well calculated for creating spiritual intoxica- 
 tion. "We know what it is from experience. ..... The 
 
 change which has taken place in our mind has merely been 
 an opening of the original idea. When we belonged to the 
 church political, we entertained the common undefined ideas of 
 a millennium which are peculiar to the Christian world — such 
 ideas as are to be found delineated, in forcible and luxuriant 
 language, in the popular and successful poem of " The Course 
 Pollock. of Time," by Pollock, with whom we were intimate during 
 the time of its composition, and to whom we suggested 
 several ideas now embodied in the work. We remember 
 especially suggesting to the poet the idea of painting in 
 heaven. He was highly pleased with the thought ; but his 
 fine poetic taste could not tolerate. the idea of an angel's 
 using a painter's brush, or hog's-hair pencil. He therefore 
 makes the angels use their fingers only : — 
 
 ' ' And dip tlieir hands in colours' native well, 
 And on the everlasting canvas dash 
 Figures of glory, imagery divine." 
 * The idea opened upon us by the discussion of the mil- 
 lenarian question, by Irving, in the year 1828.' He further 
 states : — ' It was this very idea that first drew us out of the 
 Established Church, and launched us into a sea of interest- 
 ing inquiry, which has ultimately landed us in the haven of 
 
BORTHWICK AXD IRVING. 177 
 
 Universalism.' Kow, ' our idea of the millennium is even 
 more sublime than that of the IMillenarians themselves. 
 We make every man Christ, who is imbued with Christ's 
 standard princii:)les. The whole mass of men thus united 
 is the great Christ, and the chosen individual who presides 
 over them is the personal Christ. An association composed 
 in this manner is Christ's kingdom upon earth.' 
 
 There is a distinct lack of evidence of James' close con- irvmg. 
 nection with Irving, and yet from a passage in a letter from 
 his lifelong friend, Peter Borthwick, they must at one time 
 have been intimate. 
 
 * I have not been unmindful of you, as Irving can 3rd Feb. 
 bear me witness. I wrote to Irving of your circumstances, 
 and begged him to do something for you ; he promised and 
 talked, and from time to time I have expected his letter, 
 but it has never come, and I must say, both to you and to 
 me, he has not made the returns which our friendship called 
 for. Yet it must be said, in extenuation of his neglect, that 
 he also has had his difficulties — brought on, as I think, by his 
 preaching rather against men than things — by a magnifying 
 of the natural man, and a resting rather in self-complacency 
 than in the humble and self-crucifying spirit of a true 
 minister. I believe that much of his error arises out of his 
 disobedience to authority which he ought to have respected.' 
 
 ' I did not neglect at the time the request of your letter. 
 I sent it (the request), accompanied by my own most earnest 
 entreaties, to Irving and some other friends, but I could effect 
 nothing ; had I been able to do so, you would have heard in 
 course.' 
 
 Borthwick had been one of the earnest young men in 
 Edinburgh who had refused to accept blindly without under- 
 standing, and had sought anxiously for the ' truth ' that was 
 to satisfy them. But while apparently greatly interested in 
 this eloquent and magnetic divine, Borthwick was naturally 
 too orthodox, and had too much common sense, to be led off 
 his feet as his friend had been. 
 
 N 
 
178 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 ' We seldom go to Irving or his church, and never of a 
 Sunday. Ho has now ladies who speak in the unknown 
 tongues, and in the church. Miss Mary Campbell, now Mrs 
 Keird, is residing with him ; of the truth or falsehood of 
 their claims, I am not able yet to make a decision. I know 
 two of the ladies who have " received the gifts " (so they 
 phrase it), and they are very reliable and intelligent persons 
 — one of them is young, the other married ; but I must say 
 there appears a very great number of things about them very 
 unlike the descriptions of " gifts of tongues " in the Xew 
 Testament. One of their doctrines is, that the receiving of 
 these gifts is the sealing of the 144,000 mentioned in the 
 Apocalypse, and that those who receive them not are ex- 
 cluded. This certainly agrees ill with our Lord's assertion, 
 that at the judgment-day many shall say, " we have cast out 
 devils and done miracles in thy name," who shall not the less 
 perish.' 
 
 The fact that he had disavowed a belief in a personal 
 Messiah in 1828, if it is a fact, and not an error of memory, 
 would account for Irving looking upon him as a backslider, 
 with whom and for whom he could do nothing. 
 2niisept. An interesting enquiry into 'Two Gods ' follows : — 'God 
 
 Shepheni. may be represented in a twofold light — theoretical and prac- 
 tical, or universal and particular. The first, according to 
 
 Scripture, is the Father ; the second, is the Son 
 
 The one is the God of Nature, and the other the God of 
 Human Nature. The latter is " the Son." The other 
 won't speak to us. He 
 
 * ' "Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
 Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees." 
 
 We live in him, breathe in him, move in him, but it is only 
 as man that we know him, and by the social intellect only 
 that we know him as man. But still the intellect is not the 
 
 final resting-place. Love is the end social love, the 
 
 love of one another These two are one, and that 
 
THE SHEPHERD TABOOED. 179 
 
 one is merely the universal God manifested in Human 
 Mature ; being one, two, three, seven, or as many as you can 
 imagine. Monotheism, Tritheism, or Polytheism, according 
 as you please to view the ^^ All and in all." ' 
 
 Having decided that ' the worship of this Son is the duty 9th Sept. 
 we owe to society,' he proceeds to argue, in 'Forms of "^^or- ^ihepherd. 
 ship,' that ' the forms of worship of this Son are the forms 
 of social intercourse by which we endeavour to render each 
 other happy.' The article is particularly suggestive and 
 somewhat sarcastic, ' Oh, Satan ! what a wag thou art ! ' and 
 ends : — ' The best form of worship then, in our opinion, is that 
 by which the Church is formed after the image of a perfect 
 man, whose members are knit together by a living principle of 
 sympathy, which causes each to rejoice in the joy and grieve 
 in the sufferings of its fellow, and self to dispense with all 
 beyond the narrow limits of its own reasonable wants.' 
 
 There are some humorous interludes amid the gTaver 
 papers, as when we find a keenly amusing notice that the 
 Evangelical Magazine had made an excessive charge for an 
 advertisement of the Shepherd one week, and made a formal 
 apology for its insertion the next ! He wishes to know if 
 the editor's conscience is justified. 'Is the editor of the 
 Evangelical less conscientious than the betrayer of his 
 
 Master? We shall be satisfied if the money be 
 
 given for some public and benevolent purpose ; but as " the 
 wages of a harlot and the price of a dog" are rejected by 
 the Lord, it would be advisable not to bestow it upon a 
 religious institution.' He also, ' at the suggestion of a very 
 intelligent friend,' removes the offensive word Pantheism 
 from the title. ' In doing so, however, we protest against 
 the prejudice which exists against the word. AVe used it in 
 the Apostolic sense, ^^ All and in all." TO TA'N is applied 
 by St. Paul to God himself.' In an article on 'The Mes- i«tii Sept. 
 
 1837 
 
 senger of the Messiah distinguished from the Messiah,' he Shepherd 
 returns to a curious biblical discussion, which, to those who 
 take it literally, must come as a partial retrogression. But 
 
ISO SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 lie never seems really to have shaken himself free from the 
 strict letter of the Scriptures, which exercised a strong influ- 
 ence upon his imagination, while his common sense went 
 straight to the mark in the midst of it all. ' Even supposing 
 our pious missionaries to succeed in diffusing their know- 
 ledge of the truth throughout the earth, what would be the 
 
 consequence? If the empire of China, and the 
 
 neighbourmg islands of Japan and Corea, and all the wilder- 
 ness of Tartary, and the plains of Hindostan, &c., &c., &c., 
 were peopled by such Christians as our Churchmen and Dis- 
 senters, where, in the name of truth and righteousness, 
 
 would be your cause for rejoicing? Is it not all 
 
 a mockery from beginning to end, a mere type, a mere 
 shadow, with no more reality of social love than Moses 
 and his goats of atonement for sin?' Although influenced 
 by it, he yet repeatedly protests against the letter : — 'The letter 
 of the Word, the, faith and reception of which we condemn 
 by the authority of the Book itself which condemns it, is the 
 letter of prophecy and revealed doctrine, not of sacred history, 
 which is not a revelation, but merely a social testimony.' 
 
 A fresh comparison of the Catholic and Protestant prin- 
 ciples brings out their distinctions, and the faults of both. 
 But he always sympathises with the capacity for unity and 
 organisation of the Catholic principle, or acknowledgment 
 of supreme authority of the Church in contradistinction to 
 private judgment. He prefers a system * in which the voice 
 of the Church (a moral government) is supreme, and the 
 voice of indi\dduals is allowed the utmost liberty of critical 
 comment for the sake of public instruction and universal 
 
 and contemporaneous progression Protestantism 
 
 is not a Church, it is a system of confusion There 
 
 was much of this Protestant spirit in the old Cathohc 
 Church. The monks were all Protestants ; they were even 
 exemptei from episcopal jurisdiction more than a thousand 
 years ago.' The principal constitutional defects of the 
 Catholic Church at present, he writes, 'is the want of 
 
JUSTICE DEMANDS INJUSTICE. 181 
 
 popular influence, which destroys its progressive influence, 
 and creates an anachronism of Church discipline and 
 doctrine, which can only be removed by a system of muta- 
 tion and progression, in concurrence with the modifications 
 which are ever taking place in the social habits and intel- 
 lectual exercises of mankind.' He would scarcely have 
 accepted the papal infallibility doctrine as a popular advance, 
 unless the papacy had been popularly elective, and the elector- 
 ate the moral and refined mass of mankind he desiderates ! 
 
 Under ' The Confessional ' the Shepherd endeavours to 
 explain the cause of misunderstandings between himself and 
 readers, and the difficulty of conveying his exact meaning 
 to the minds of all, as well as the objection to taking partial - 
 statements in place of following his whole system of ^N'ature. 
 
 'We have often asserted that injustice is a property of Jg^^^*^*- 
 justice. AVe are not understood. But we challenge any 
 man to define justice without including injustice at its nega- 
 tive pole, not as a thing distinct or separate from justice, 
 but really as a living part of it. We would illustrate the 
 principle of eternal justice thus : — 
 
 Justice absolute 
 (including Injustice relative). 
 Equality. Inequality. 
 
 Impartiahty, &c. Partiality, &c. 
 
 The line represents the principle of justice. Equality is the 
 positive pole of justice, inequality is its negative. Were 
 God to make all beings equal in power, beauty, virtue, &c., 
 He would deform creation by destroying its interesting 
 variety. His wisdom, therefore, has made all things unequal 
 in power, beauty, virtue, &c. But perfect wisdom and perfect 
 justice are in perfect harmony. This inequality, therefore, 
 is justice. But yet, who can or will deny that inequality 
 of favour and distribution is the very essence of injustice % ' 
 The whole of this paper is shrewd and eff'ective. Having 
 explained his moving principle long ago, he is now at work 
 
182 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 translating it into everyday practice. ' Religion^ active and 
 passive,' -vvliicli is to be followed ? Faith and Avorks. ' The 
 one believes, relics, and trusts in God ; the other employs, 
 actively and energetically, the powers which God has given 
 
 him The line of duty which God has prescribed for 
 
 man in this life is tw^ofold — one for himself of passivity, and 
 another for his neighbour of activity. To balance these two 
 duties, so that the one shall not prevent the other, is our 
 beau-ideal of moral virtue.' This is skilfully worked out 
 and elucidated. 
 
 There is an occasional very characteristic touch in his 
 correspondence column : — ' We certainly did take offence at 
 a Universalist calling our doctrine Omnihusalism ; moreover, 
 we had a good laugh over it, but, since he disclaims any 
 intention to offend, we are perfectly reconciled.' He had a 
 good laugh over it ! even although he were offended. 
 
 'What has Religion done for Society?' is a specially prac- 
 tical treatise. He sums up thus : — ' Clerical religion has 
 done good individually by administering private spiritual 
 consolation in distress, and in the prospect of death, and in 
 solitary moods and conditions. Clerical religion has done 
 evil socially by allying itself with the unsocial system of 
 accumulation and covetousness, and spreading a false notion 
 in the popular mind that religion is compatible with the 
 hoarding of private gains The social evil far out- 
 weighs the private good.' In the same number in which 
 this appears w^e learn that he sent to the Watchman news- 
 paper, the organ of the Wesleyan Methodists, an advertise- 
 ment, prepaid : ' The Shepherd, now publishing weekly, price 
 1 |-d. The pages of the Shepherd are devoted to the social 
 aspect of Christianity, the general apostacy of the Christian 
 Church, and its re-union upon social principles.' A council 
 sat upon it, and rejected it ' because it was anti-Christian.' 
 And yet he is surprised ! and appeals to Christ, the founder 
 of Christianity. Eut surely he was anti-their-Christianity ! 
 which was all the Christianity they could be expected to 
 
THE SCIENCES NOT SOCIALISED. 183 
 
 consider. He could expect no more consideration from 
 scientists, for — ' Science, as now cultivated, creates as much 
 evil as it removes ; there is not a new discovery of import- 
 ance in mechanics which does not slay its thousands. "What 
 is the cause of this ? Tlie sciences are not yet socialised.^ 
 
 The influence of religion to Smith must be shown 4th Nov. 
 
 1837 
 
 externally, or he would not believe in it. In ' What might shepherd. 
 
 Religion do for Mankind?' he again returns to the subject, 
 
 points out its financial power — which is all wasted : — ' the 
 
 ministers and the printers receive all the money, and the 
 
 peojDle only receive the words and the jDaper,' and suggests 
 
 social experiments. ' Several noblemen have already tried, co-opeiation. 
 
 and now powerfully recommend, the land-allotment system 
 
 as a remedy for moral depravity,' but he does not accept 
 
 their conclusions. ' What is the use of experience to the 
 
 individual, if the experience of the species is thus to be 
 
 thrown away, and men are to be sent back, like savages, to 
 
 the mere guidance of instinct and brute labour in the 
 
 cultivation of the ground ? ' After suggesting more practical 
 
 and business-like arrangements, he acknowledges that, while 
 
 all this social amelioration could be done without religion, 
 
 yet, had the spirit of religion been abroad, it would have been 
 
 done long ago. While advocating intelligent co-operation in 
 
 this and other directions, he also discusses the possibility iitii Xov. 
 
 1837 
 
 of 'community of property.' 'Attempts have been made ^A^p/jm/. 
 to revive the primitive Christian practice of common pro- community 
 perty, but they have always proved remarkable failures. In °^ piopei-ty- 
 modern times, these attempts have generally originated with 
 stern fanatics, destitute of common prudence, and trusting 
 blindly to the extraordinary manifestation of the Spirit, 
 and they have always been connected with the idea 
 that political institutions and magisterial authorities -were 
 unnecessary to preserve the order and subordination of 
 
 society Had it not been for the marriage question, 
 
 community would have been established in the world long 
 ago Our idea of community is not absolute. 
 
184 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 Vachcan!'^ Absolute community would produce tameness and monotony, 
 and destroy the spirit of society. But agricultural com- 
 munity would preserve the individual rights of all, be an 
 ample security against the fear of want, and be a most 
 successful instrument of moral regeneration for the people, 
 whilst movable property woidd afford ample scope for the 
 exercise of ingenuity, the stimulus of emulation, and all its 
 energetic and kindred impulses.' 
 
 Paradoxes at all times exercised a fascination on James 
 Smith ; they enabled him to lohumle a question, and see the 
 other side better. 'Who are the Faithful — Christians or 
 Infidels ? ' gives rise to a fine piece of analysis, in which he 
 
 18th Nov. carefully difi'erentiates the Christ and Jesus of Xazareth. 
 
 1837 
 
 Shepherd. 'The universality of the belief in a general restoration of 
 human society is one of the most remarkable features of the 
 
 history of man It belongs to all progressive nations. 
 
 We regard the good moral Infidel, who believes in 
 
 the regeneration of society, and ado^Dts the foregoing system 
 of practical moral education, as a better Christian, both in 
 faith and practice, than the praying, church-going, hymn 
 and psalm singing believer (?). Notwithstanding, we do not 
 
 consider his state of mind as reasonable Revelation 
 
 is a vineyard, and man is put into the garden to dress it. 
 Infidelity thrusts him out. Old faith refuses to touch the 
 tree of the Lord's planting. Both extremes are foolish. 
 We would merely, put the pruning-knife into the gardener's 
 hand and tell him to use it freely, for the vine will not bear 
 good fruit otherwise. Christianity wants pruning. The 
 Christian has not spirit to do it. The Infidel thinks it not 
 worth doing. Hence both are inefficient. We must have 
 patience till wiser men appear.' 
 
 It is impossible to give an adequate conception of the 
 grasp and subtlety of these Shepherd articles from isolated 
 paragraphs or epitomes of them. They are full of solid 
 analysis and sound thinking, and more especially suggestive; 
 while at the same time they surprise the reader with their 
 
SELFISH INDIVIDUALISM. 185 
 
 common sense and wholesome cliaracter. There is a breezy- 
 air of the mountain top about them. He shows us the 
 kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them to be possessed 
 if we would but fall down and worship this 'Satan' (opponent !) 
 — the selfish spirit of individualism. He can hold no com- 
 munion either with ' evan^'elicals or moralists.' 'The evan- 9th Dec. 
 
 1837 
 
 gelicals would regard us as impious heretics ; we regard them shepherd 
 as wild rhapsodists, who create confusion in society, and are 
 only of use in keeping down the moralists, and preventing 
 them from securing the pillars of political tyranny and 
 ecclesiastical apostacy.' 
 
 As to being a visionary : — ' There is nothing more visionary 
 
 than the system which is actually in being AYlien 
 
 you are told that nearly two millions' of property is annually 
 
 stolen in the metropolis, it is somewhat ridiculous, 
 
 surely, to call it a practical system. When we are told that 
 the annual plunder at the docks, in such articles as old iron, 
 
 &c., &c., by the purchase of which many thousands 
 
 of people make a comfortable and pretty safe living, amounts 
 nearly to a milUon sterling, do you call this a practical system 1 
 When we are told that thousands of streets and lanes in 
 London are in such a state of corruption, so infested with 
 malaria, and the accumulated filth of ages, that the most 
 fearful and unheard-of diseases are incessantly being 
 engendered in them, which are never heard of among people 
 who enjoy clean homes and cleanly j^ersons ; when you are 
 actually told by physicians that a very large proportion of the 
 young men of London are impotent with debauchery and 
 disease, and as feeble in body as old peasants of 80 or 90 ; 
 when you are told that the superintendence of such diseases 
 is one of the most lucrative, and the very busiest department 
 of the medical art, that domestic peace is spoiled, young love 
 disappointed, jealousies aroused, and hatreds insuperable 
 engendered by them, surely you cannot have the impudence 
 to call all this a practical or a religious system 1 It is the 
 reign of Chaos. They are madmen who support it, they are 
 
183 
 
 186 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 fools who preach in it, and the only wise men are they who 
 try to destroy it.' 
 oui Dec. In claiming ' a moral government,' the Shepherd specially 
 
 Vhrj.heni disclaims a clerical government. 'It can never form the 
 basis of a good government, because it proceeds upon the 
 principle of binding the intellect, which is free by nature, 
 and thus it becomes an obstacle to all progressive improve- 
 ment.' 
 
 Although led to discuss the application of his views in 
 various directions, ' we do not mean to interfere with out- 
 ward arrangements. We may talk or chat a little alDOut better 
 and worse, and give various views, but this is our plan — to 
 Christianise the social system, or to sanctify it — to consecrate 
 it to God, to faith, hope, and charity. This is our object — 
 our only object. This is all our ambition. We are merely 
 a disembodied spirit seeking a body, hovering over the 
 surface of the waters, like Xoah's dove, looking for a place 
 of rest.' 
 
 Again, he says : — ' Our principle has always been that the 
 positive acknowledgment of God is the first axiom of philo- 
 sophy. All philosophy without this is delirious.' 
 
 The Theosophical idea, of the re-absorption into the great 
 first-principle, does not appeal to the Shepherd. His objec- 
 tion is to selfish individualism, not to a living sense of indi- 
 27t]i Jan viduality per se. * In our present terrestrial state our 
 IS>( 7/ individual condition is always of the first importance. We 
 are all anxious after happiness. We love domestic comfort, 
 ease, and independence. But our fate is partly sealed by 
 birth. We have, in fact, become familiar with it, and in 
 general we can forecast the general outline of oiu destiny — 
 that is, our future rank in society. Not so with our after- 
 being ; that is a complete mystery. We are not yet born 
 into that world. Does the nature of that new birth depend 
 on our spiritual and moral being in this life 1 If so, how 
 important to all of us is the individual relationship which 
 we bear to the author of our being, or, in other words, the 
 
SOURCE OF GOOD AND EVIL. 187 
 
 standard of moral good. As we rise here, we shall rise 
 hereafter. We know nothing more ennobling to the human 
 mind than this consideration. It belongs always to the 
 noblest and the finest spirits. The sublime in virtue can 
 never be attained without it.' 
 
 ' External circumstances act upon the individual, and help 3rd Feb. 
 to form his character. Internal circumstances arise in the Shepherd. 
 individual, and are also instrumental in giving a direction to 
 his principles of action. Every man's own imagination 
 makes a world within him, and that imaginary world influ- 
 ences his thoughts, Avords, and actions as positively and 
 
 directly as the outward world itself The highest 
 
 order of minds have this imaginary world most strongly 
 outlined and coloured. They are, therefore, most power- 
 fully acted upon from within, and, in this sense of the word, 
 are most individualised. They have the greatest originality 
 of mind.' 
 
 Smith's struggle to infuse a belief in Divine Providence i7t]i Feb. 
 
 1838 
 
 into Owenism was continued and sincere. ' The present is 
 the offspring of the past, the future is the offspring of the 
 present — the link of relationship runs down the course of 
 time ; and where is the man who has power to snap it ? 
 
 We dislike as much as any Infidel in Christendom 
 
 or heathendom the cant of sectarianism in the use of the 
 name of God as an individual judge or partisan in the rela- 
 tionships of life ; and it is not for the employment of the 
 religious feeling in this exclusive and selfish and belligerent 
 style that we insist upon the recognition of our fundamental 
 fact. We seek it only as a fundamental basis of social 
 organisation.' Upon this he enlarges with great breadth 
 and insight. 
 
 One of the principal subjects for which tlie Shej^herd was loth Mar. 
 started he returns to in one of the last numbers, the ' Justifi- Shepherd. 
 cation of the Divine Nature as the Source of Good and Evil.' 
 ' . . . . . The sectarian god and devil are divine fictions 
 for creating a system of terrorism, and for fettering the 
 
188 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 mind. The union of these two principles simply removes 
 
 the terror, and sets the mind at liberty Did this 
 
 fiction circulate merely as a poetical figure, it would be useful 
 and beautiful ; but at present it is plain, dull prose, of very 
 rude and portentous aspect. We admire it as poetry, and 
 believe it must for ever be preserved in its poetic sense ; 
 but in its prosaic sense it must gradually die away, till at 
 last it be recorded amongst the myths of antiquity.' 
 
 It has happily reached that bourne already, no doubt 
 greatly aided by his powerful advocacy over so many years. 
 
 An analytical chart of universal Justice, Truth, and 
 Peace, from which Smith expected much, sums up his 
 * system.' 'A boy of fourteen may understand it, and 
 when once understood we should have very little fear of 
 that boy ever being perverted in mind by any species of 
 bigotry, either infidel or religious.' This is followed by an 
 admirable history of socialism, which he considers has a 
 quickening to encounter before it can prosper. Even Owen's 
 New Mortal World demands this. ' But no prosperity can 
 attend it, and no beauty can ever recommend it, until its 
 terraqueous materialism be clothed, and its nakedness con- 
 cealed from the aspiring soul of man.' 
 
 The great principle that guided him was always clear to his 
 mind ; and although he acknowledges he can never read a 
 page of the Shepherd himself without severely criticising it, — 
 ' In doing so, I do not correct the original principles on 
 which it is based, but merely the manner in which I have 
 endeavoured to convey those principles to the understanding 
 
 of the reader I have no hesitation in saying that 
 
 I have laid down in the Shepherd the fundamental principles 
 of the science of universal analogy in a more definite and 
 intelligible form than has ever before been done. I have 
 had no precursor to render me the slightest assistance — to 
 supply me with terms, and aid me in the choice of expres- 
 sions. I^either theologian nor savant has plowed the field 
 before me, or even removed the stones to smooth the progress 
 
SCIENCE OF UNIVERSAL ANALOGY. 189 
 
 of the ploughshare. I never read a single author who took 
 so broad, so high, and so low a view of universal nature as I. 
 This will account for many of my faults, inasmuch as my 
 efforts are merely the incipient efforts of an infantine science. 
 
 I firmly adhere to the bipolar view of truth with 
 
 which I set out. I cannot conceive another.' Neither 
 Materialist nor Spiritualist will he accept. * I can imagine 
 a spiritual being creating a world for itself, as the mind does 
 in a dream, but that world is external to it as soon as it is 
 created. The mind sees, hears, and feels the creation of its 
 own fancy. But life Avithout perception is an absurdity.' 
 
 In his conclusion he acknowledges that he has been 
 accused of contradicting himself, and confesses — 'That my 
 habits of thinking necessarily lead me into this apparent con- 
 tradiction, because I find it impossible to obtain a full front 
 view of the face of truth by any other method. I do not 
 like profiles. Now, all doctrines hitherto taught are mere 
 profiles of truth ; and so much accustomed are men and 
 women to the representation of truth with one eye, one ear, 
 one cheek, and one nostril, that when any one presumes to 
 draw her with two of each they roar out contradiction.' 
 
 He does not end the Shepherd without a wail from many 
 of the friends who had gathered round him in a little 'flock,' 
 and come to look to him as indeed a ' shepherd.' 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A COXTIXEXTAL HOLIDAY. 
 
 "We have dwelt at length upon the Shepherd as representing 
 in the fullest degree his higher life, and containing what he 
 undoubtedly considered his mission to mankind. The lady, 
 or ladies, who supported him with means to carry out the 
 Shepherd he seems afterwards to have become acquainted 
 with. The mouthpiece writes with some stiffness, more 
 June iso: from self-contained habit than want of friendliness : — * Our 
 proposal does not confer any personal obligation upon your- 
 self, although it is needful at this crisis, like grease upon 
 the wheels, to set the machine agoing, yet it is the least 
 valuable material in the concern. Mr. Cousins does more in 
 carrying out the executive part of it; and where could the 
 outflowings of mental treasure be bought, or how created ? 
 This current supply is our freewill offering of what we have 
 to throw into the treasury in aid of the righteous cause of 
 goodness and truth, and it is given with and from the heart. 
 The manner in which you have acknowledged it is perfectly 
 satisfactory, and I may say highly pleasing to us.' The 
 writer goes on to give an account of their surroundings, 
 which is an interesting glimpse into the England of that 
 day, the year of Her Majesty's coronation: — 'Within two 
 miles' distance on one side of us is a manufacturing popula- 
 tion of many hundreds, dependent on the master of the 
 factory and a few petty shopkeepers, who, as is usual, retail 
 inferior articles, give short weight, and charge a higher price 
 than they can be obtained for in towns. Since the legislative 
 Act of October 1830, licensing beer-houses, ten of these and 
 
'KEEP THE MULTITUDE IGXOllAXT.' 191 
 
 two public-houses have been ojDcned in this village (not one 
 having previously existed), which are rapidly contributing 
 to the demoralisation of our neighbours. 1*^0 gentry live in 
 or near the village, and a clergyman of the Church of 
 England, an Ultra-Calvinist, preaches to the saints, leaving 
 the sinners to their predestined doom ; these are invited by 
 Baptists and Wesleyans, who succeed in getting large con- 
 gregations; still, vice and wretchedness increase amongst them. 
 On the other side of us, within a few miles, is a population 
 of a few hundreds, chiefly agxicultural labourers, in whose 
 parish neither clergy nor gentry reside ; and the people are 
 lawless, doing that which is right in their own eyes, with 
 little moral interruption. Several beer-shops are opened 
 here also, and aid in degenerating its inhabitants. Eleven 
 years ago we sedulously began to set on foot schemes of 
 instruction, but we were opposed directly by the clergy, 
 limited, baffled, defeated, and finally obliged, with deep 
 regret, to quit the field. The last three years we have 
 endeavoured to circulate better and more liberal ideas than 
 those generally prevailing around us, by lending and giving 
 such books as Combe's Constitution of Man, &c. ; but here, 
 again, the clergy oppose us, and in too many instances 
 succeed in warning persons against reading any works we 
 would put into their hands. This bigoted ignorance we have 
 found equally ruling amongst the clergy and the professedly 
 religious of the Church of England and Dissenters.' 
 
 Against this creed of ' keep the multitude ignorant,' James 
 Smith had always fought manfully, although it was more 
 from moral than purely intellectual education that he ex- 
 pected amelioration to come. So far as we can learn, the 
 names of the ladies who provided the sinews of war were 
 Mrs. Chichester and Mrs G. F. Welsh, and they did not stop 
 their aid with the stoppage of the Shepherd. Although 
 without direct evidence, it is apparently from this quarter 
 that the aid came to enable him to take the one great holiday 
 of his busy life. 
 
192 
 
 SHEPHERD S^IITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 7tli Feb. 
 1838. 
 -Tames to 
 .lolin. 
 
 April 1838. 
 James to 
 John. 
 
 ' It is my present intention, should health permit, to go 
 direct to Paris and stay there a month or six weeks. I shall 
 then take a run up to Geneva, cross the Alps, and probably 
 drive down to the Eternal City, come back by Venice, and 
 return by the German States. Whether I can accomplish 
 all this or not I cannot determine. But a friend has 
 offered me .£50 to spend in that way, and by adding a few 
 pounds of my own, what I would spend at home at anyrate, 
 I think I may accomplish it all.' He especially desired to 
 see the Eternal City. ' When I return I mean to commence 
 lecturing on an improved principle. Formerly I was obliged 
 to charge admission-money to pay my expenses. I have 
 now obtained £150 per annum to pay the room and support 
 
 myself, .£70 being su^^posed to pay the room But 
 
 experience has taught me not to be over-sanguine, and I 
 was so far from being rejoiced at this circumstance that I 
 felt rather loaded with the responsibility. It is a hard 
 matter contending with prejudices; so hard that perhaps 
 there is no other place but London in which it can effec- 
 tually be done. I am sorry to hear of the Doctor's illness 
 (Dr. James I^apier). We have completely set up one Doctor 
 (by our Satirist)^ who gives medical advice to correspon- 
 dents. Had ISJ'apier been here I could, have got him a most 
 respectable living by such means.' Surely this was the 
 beginning of a system which has so greatly expanded ! The 
 Satirist seems to have had an important circulation, and he 
 is to continue the leaders for it during his absence. ' Payne, 
 
 that I spoke to you of, has ordered 50 quire of the 
 
 Satirist this week for Bristol. I will be able to send you a letter 
 from any place I go to at the expense of a London postage. 
 I have the privilege of sending through the Foreign Office. 
 I will send the leaders of the Satirist in that way. Little 
 
 do the Government suspect it ! Travelling to Paris 
 
 is much cheaper this year. I can go all the way — first-cabin 
 in the steamer, and inside of the new English coaches — to 
 Paris for 28s. 6d. If you take the outside you may go for 
 
A CONTINENTAL HOLIDAY. 193 
 
 one pound. I believe it will be much cheaper yet before 
 the summer is over. It was only 5s. last jeav to Boulogne 
 in the first cabin for a month or two. The 28s. 6d. does 
 not include expenses by the way, such as a night's lodging 
 in Calais or Boulogne, jDrovision, and some other little 
 matters to postillions, but still it is very cheap compared to 
 what it used to be, when one was hard pressed to get to 
 Paris for £5.' 
 
 , We catch a glimpse again here of his distinguished 
 youngest brother, afterwards Dr Eobert Angus Smith : — ' I 
 had a letter from Robert a few weeks ago. He is throng 
 (sic) studying Greek, and knows nothing about the world 
 and its concerns. He is living in the first or second century, 
 with a sort of prophetic glimpse into the nineteenth. But 
 if it do him no harm in a pecuniary point of view, he is 
 quite as haj^py in one century as another.' ' Holt that used 
 to conduct the Weekly Chronicle, and raised it to 100,000, 
 has been dismissed, become bankrupt, been in prison, and 
 set up a splendid paper called the Weekly Herald, which is 
 playing the deuce with the Chronicle. He set the new 
 paper agoing when he was in prison, going through the 
 bankrupt court. He has a curious way of treating a land- 
 lord. He sometimes makes the landlord pay rent to him 
 instead of paying to the landlord. He takes a house, pays 
 no rent, won't go out, defies the landlord to put him out, but 
 proposes to go out if the landlord will give him £10, or any 
 
 other sum. The landlord d s and swears. Holt takes 
 
 it very coolly. At last the landlord offers him £5. Holt 
 gives up the key and looks for another house. He is the 
 Printer's, or rather the Publisher's Devil.' 
 
 And now he has a holiday ! The first, if not the only, 
 real holiday of his working life, and we are tempted to 
 reproduce some of his impressions of a period that mus 
 appear as the ' youth of the world ' to the present genera- 
 tion, more especially as he enters into details on points of 
 domestic economy. 
 
 o 
 
19-i SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 ■Mi\ May Pai'is. — ' It is very far inferior to London in magnificence 
 
 iSi before and outward beauty, as well as in size. The river is very 
 H.uissman. -^-^^^ -f ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^YiSiii the Clyde at Glasgow, and the' 
 bridges are very paltry. But the view from the river is 
 
 much superior to that at Glasgow The principal 
 
 feature of Paris, and that which makes it so very attractive, 
 is the mode of living. The best parts of the town are 
 crowded with Restaurants and Cafes' And so novel were 
 these to him both in name and character that he proceeds to 
 explain what they are, and how a dinner can be ordered 
 from a carte without speaking. After explaining the out- 
 door life, he proceeds : — ' There is nothing like it in Eng- 
 land. It is (?) a social appearance. But the appearance is 
 deceitful, for the whole mass is made up of small parties 
 
 who hold no intercourse with each other The life 
 
 of Paris is the life of the middle classes. But London is 
 much better both for the very rich and the very poor gentle- 
 man. A London dinner is cheaper, and a cheap London 
 dinner is much better than a cheap Parisian one. You may 
 dine comfortably in London and read the journals for a shil- 
 ling ; but although in Paris you may dine for a shilling, there 
 is not the same satisfaction.' He considers the ordinary 
 wine 'not so good as cider, and much worse than ale.' 'But 
 in some of the most splendid houses you may order one dish 
 and a bottle of ale, and dine tolerably well. A plain dish 
 of meat cannot cost less than 8d., or ten sous ; the beer half a 
 franc, or 5d. ; the bread Id. = 14d., and a penny to the 
 waiter. In London the same quantity of porter would cost 
 2d., thus reducing the dinner to Is. Upon the whole, 
 London is decidedly cheaper, and in the cafes a half cup of 
 coffee costs 4d. The half cup or demi tasse is the only cup 
 used in the cafes in the afternoon — in the morning the tasse 
 or full cup is used, and this is from 6d. to 8d., so that you 
 cannot breakfast for less than lOd. In the London coffee- 
 houses you breakfast well on a cup of coffee, a hot roll, and 
 an egg, for 7d., or even 6d. However, you have in Paris 
 
PARISIAN LITERATURE. 195 
 
 the satisfaction of sitting in a glass house : the walls of Paris 
 are literally covered with looking-glasses, and outside the 
 shops the looking-glasses are very frequent. Some shops 
 are all glass together, door and all, so that unless they 
 printed entree on the panes you would be puzzled to find 
 
 the door Books are cheap here, but very inferior 
 
 in type and paper. You may have Sir Walter Scott's novels 
 for 4s. each, but I suppose they could not be brought over 
 to England. I have bought a few French books, on different 
 subjects connected with the Church in France, which I 
 could not procure in London. But in general literature 
 London is much better supplied than Paris. There is one 
 thing that strikes a foreigner in Paris, and that is, that the 
 book-stalls are loaded with neio books, and are sometimes 
 very gaudy, as the French books are all either yellow, light 
 blue, or green outside.' 
 
 His brother Micaiah had been with him in Paris for 
 about a week on his w^ay to Bale, where he was situated for 
 a time. He lost his hat in the diligence on the way thither ; 
 but James remarks that as the people there wear caps, his 
 brother's travelling-cap will not be out of place ! 
 
 After some weeks in Paris, he travelled by Dijon, 
 Besan9on, I^euchatel, Berne, Lausanne, Geneva, Yevey, 
 Martigny, Sion, Brigg, Domo D'Ossola, Baveno, Milan, 
 Verona, Padua, Venice, Padua, Ferrara, Bologna, Florence, 
 Siena, Aquapendente, Eonciglione, and at length reached 
 the goal of his journey — Rome, the Eternal City. 
 
 ' Eome is a very agreeable place, about the size of Edin- 7th July 
 burgh, but not so beautiful nor half so romantic. The Tar- 
 peian rock is not above 20 or 30 feet high, and the Capitol 
 scarcely raises itself above the rest of the city. The hills 
 are none of them equal in size to the Calton Hill, and many 
 of them scarcely seem to be elevated above the plain. The 
 river is about the size of the Clyde at Glasgow, and the 
 bridges are very shabby, excepting San Angelo, which is 
 finely ornamented with statues The place is 
 
196 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 crammed M'ith priests — that is, Rome. Wliat tliey all do 
 I cannot divine, but they are the civillest men I ever met. 
 I always address a priest, in preference to another person, 
 ■when I want to know my way. They are uncommonly 
 obliging. The monks, too, which (sic) are as thick as 
 potatoes in Ireland, are all civil fellows — the pleasantest 
 men, as a body, whom I have ever spoken to.' ' I am 
 almost devoured with fleas. I have been travelling from 
 Venice with the Count d'Aicholt, a German. He came 
 into my room scratching himself this morning, and asked 
 me if I had any fleas ? I told him I was half devoured by 
 them. He said it ^vas a " Palais des Puces " — a flea palace. 
 It is the German Hotel — a good house — where we reside ; 
 but we found them on the way to Rome as thick as priests.' 
 i8'!8 ^^^*' After an absence of three and a half months he got home 
 
 at the end of July. ' I came home by the French govern- 
 ment steam-packet from Civita Vecchia to Marseilles, touch- 
 ing at Leghorn, where I went on shore and dined, and saw 
 the town. There I met a friend of Logan's (Perth), a Mr. 
 Thomson, a sculptor in Leith Walk, who came all the way 
 to London with me. We took an outside seat on the dili- 
 gence from Marseilles to Lyons, when we were toasted quite 
 brown by the intensity of the heat. We then took the 
 steamer from Lyons to Chalons-sur-Saone, which was a day's 
 journey ; and on arriving at Chalons we almost immediately 
 stepped into the diligence for Paris, and drove on night and 
 day. We left Marseilles on Saturda}^ morning, and arrived 
 in Paris on Thursday afternoon. We then left Paris on 
 Saturday evening at six o'clock, and arrived in Boulogne at 
 three o'clock on Sunday afternoon. We took the steamer 
 at ten the same evening, and arrived in London on Monday 
 at twelve, having thus occupied nine days in coming from 
 Marseilles, having four bed-sleeps on the way. I was thirteen 
 days in coming from Rome, and I should be sorry to travel 
 quicker than I did ; but as I stayed two full days in Paris, 
 and one in Lyons, and one in Marseilles, I was only nine 
 
ITALIAN TRA^'EL. 197 
 
 days in coming from Kome. Yet the French travelling is 
 much slower than ours, the average being six miles an hour. 
 I was quite glad to see Paris once more ; it looked gayer 
 and happier than before. The further you go beyond Paris 
 the fewer comforts you enjoy. The Parisian cafes are 
 
 splendid Our London coffee-houses are miserable 
 
 hovels compared to them There are a few good 
 
 cafes in Rome, and the street before them is covered with 
 chairs and tables, with improvisatoris singing and playing 
 the guitar. But the ordinary cafes of Rome are nothing to 
 ])e compared to the French. Travelling in Italy is very 
 different to anything in this country. There are very few 
 regular conveyances, and in most places none at all. There 
 is not a single diligence between Rome and Florence, or 
 between Florence and Venice. You must engage with a 
 vetturino, who starts when he has found a party. His 
 carriage generally holds six — four inside and two out, him- 
 self one of the two. Some have three outsides. The 
 outsides have a cover like a phaeton, and are jDreferred by 
 gentlemen. They go at the rate of forty miles a day at an 
 average, and never change horses. One told me his horses 
 had travelled over Italy, France, and Germany. They rouse 
 you at three o'clock in the morning, start at four, stop some- 
 where to breakfast before noon, rest four hours during the 
 heat of the day, then start about four, and put up for the 
 night about eight o'clock, when they dine. It is a very 
 agreeable mode of travelling ; and as your time is your own, 
 you can stop a day if you please by the way ; the vetUirino 
 is very glad of it, and the horses still more, only you must 
 pay for their day's entertainment. I heard a good deal 
 about robbers, but I saw none. It seems to be as safe 
 travelling in Italy as in England. I should not be afraid 
 to travel on any Italian road. Yet, had anyone told me 
 that there were no regular public conveyances on the great 
 road by which I was to pass, I should have been afraid to 
 proceed, being alone, and not certain of finding others 
 
198 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 But I should not like to live out of my own country. Italy 
 is too hot — as hot, I believe, as the East Indies — and also 
 too dull, there being scarcely any commerce, and no symp- ' 
 toms of commerce in it. It is also full of beggars, who 
 annoy you at every step. It is most disagreeable to walk 
 out amongst so many poor wretches.' 
 
 That he had a pleasant time and enjoyed his experience he 
 has told us, and that he took full advantage of his opportuni- 
 ties the multitude of clever water-colour sketches of scenery 
 
 18th Aug. taken during this trip fully declare. A letter from Munich, 
 signed ' Our Xame is Legion,' shows he made agreeable 
 acquaintances, who were interested in his personality, the 
 signature covering a bevy of half a dozen ladies with whom 
 he parted on the Grand Canal of Venice, and ' to whom, 
 your society enhanced so much the pleasures of the 100 
 isles.' 
 
 31st July His good genii at Cirencester write congratulating him on 
 
 his return, from whose letter we find he has somewhere 
 received a severe and painful blow ! They are essentially 
 progressive females, seeking to give practical expression to 
 their faith in the higher life. ' Mrs. C. and myself feel 
 much interested in several of the members of the esthetic 
 fraternity who associate together for mutual instruction at 
 
 " Letters and Mr. G.'s loddnf?s (" our mutual friend, /. P. Greaves!''). Mr. 
 
 Extracts o o \ ' / 
 
 from MS. Lane has sent out a useful pamphlet on Betrothment. 
 james° Everything is good that will break up and break down the 
 o'l^eaves."— present laws, systems, and arrangements of marriage, which, 
 p.^654,' F.H. as now existing in every grade of society, are most vicious 
 and demoralising altogether.' She explains that the arrange- 
 ment as to providing for his lectureship is only for one year, 
 as Mrs. C. does not feel authorised to look further ahead. 
 ' Your letter gave us pleasure, from its appearing written 
 imder an easy, dehonnair mental frame or ^^ state.'' We 
 hope your mental state is tranquil and content whilst you 
 are meditating future action, and preparing to go forth as 
 one of the champions of the neio dispensation, and to pro- 
 
HIS LADY PATRONS. 199 
 
 claim the spirits^ approaching advent.' They are evidently 
 teetotal, and suggest that sugar and water will be more 
 conducive (to progression) than the ale and wine of any 
 country's manufacture. As is very often and naturally the 
 case with teetotalers, animal food meets with their disap- 
 proval also : — ' Mrs. C. will feel extremely obliged to you lotii Dec 
 to persevere in co-operating with our efforts to bring eating 
 animal flesh and blood, and the butchering trade altogether, 
 into thorough disgrace and contempt. You can excite these 
 feelings in a large mixed multitude through the medium of 
 the Press, while we shall try to kindle them in our more 
 limited private circle.' This idea seemed to be Buddhistic, ' to 
 present the purest possible conditions to the Spirit to work 
 on and with ' — not so much from any horror of taking life. 
 We fancy their vegetarian and teetotal views had not much 
 weight with James Smith, who, like his brothers, craved 
 for ' savoury food ' when mentally exhausted, and seemed to 
 require an occasional glass of ale, although otherwise most 
 temperate in their diet. How much of this is constitu- 
 tional ? These ladies were in no sense fanatical, however ; 
 they wrote with calmness and common-sense, and one has a 
 feeling that his constant correspondence with refined, culti- 
 vated, and intelligent women did much to preserve his 
 sanity, and raise him otherwise. Although ' Mrs. C. has 
 just read to me the Royal Dialogue in the Penny Satirist of 
 8th December (1838), and find our expectations surpassed 
 by the able manner in which you have so ludicrously treated 
 the festive gluttonies perpetrated so extensively at the return 
 of Xmas,' yet his aberrations trouble them : — ' I must con- 
 fess that I have a partiality for men wearing their beards ; 
 nevertheless we are rather startled at your hint of the pro- 
 bability of your reassuming this distinguishing feature, and 
 it makes me uneasy for the first time about you. Wliatever 
 the Spirit may say to you, or impress upon your mind about 
 wearing your beard, must cliiefly and mainly ^ if not alto- 
 gether, refer to some inward spiritual state, quite distinct 
 
200 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 from any outward clieveliire, either upon the head or on the 
 chin ; and I wish I were better qualified to prove that this 
 assertion is a real fact.' 
 
 Any strong and vivid feeling or behef had become a 
 spiritual manifestation to Smith, and consequently the 
 honest conviction that shaving was an artificial convention- 
 alism may have induced him to rebel against a slavery that 
 has since been gradually got rid of. It was, no doubt, to 
 him a type of social slavery. The writer of the above 
 rejoices with him at this time ' in the prospect of a con- 
 ciliatory intercourse being renewed between your father and 
 sisters and yourself,' his antagonism to Irvingism having 
 caused an estrangement. This may have arisen more from 
 the dogmatical and severe character of his ow^n race than 
 from any inherent necessity in Irvingism ; but he can find 
 in it no good thing ! 
 
CHAPTER XYL 
 
 FOURIERISM — THE LONDON PHALANX. 
 
 Having changed his residence and taken a hall, he now, 
 with a proper sense of responsibility, but by no means 
 exultantly, enters once more upon the oral exposition of the 
 faith that is in him. 
 
 ' I continue to lecture every Sunday evening, and after nth Dec. 
 lecture there is a discussion on the subject of lecture. My James to 
 room is generally very well filled, and the discussions very 
 animated. There are some good speakers. There is one of 
 our celebrated poets (Heraud) who comes often. He was 
 lately editor of Fraser's Magazine, but has now got the 
 Monthlij. I have Catholics, Protestants, and Infidels upon 
 me ; and I may safely say, without vanity, that not one of 
 them can scratch me. That a great change in opinion is 
 taking place here is evident, but it is very gradual. There 
 is not an Atheistical lecturer in London now. There are 
 many Atheists, but they have been so miserably mortified 
 that they are afraid to show themselves; and though the 
 Owenites still oppose me as too mystical, they are treading 
 in my steps, and using the arguments I put into their 
 
 mouths I cannot tell you what I am doing, for it 
 
 is not visible in a day or a year ; but I firmly believe I am 
 more instrumental than any other individual in stemming 
 
 the current of infidelity But I am learning much 
 
 by collision with the leading schools of the new popular 
 philosophy, and thus discovering the best mode of wounding 
 the foe. I have no doubt that by and by the controversy 
 will become public and general. It must be so. The zeal 
 
202 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 is intense, and it is only the political power of the Church 
 that preserves its pride. It disdains to controvert, but the 
 first great humbling that it receives Avill bring on a fierce 
 encounter. I have in my pocket a letter from a Church of 
 England clergyman to Mr. Cousins (the publisher), request- 
 ing him to send all I have written ; he has the Sheioherd^ 
 and likes it so well he has become a thief — I use his own 
 language — and introduces it into his discourses. I have 
 heard of another in IpsAvich, quoting whole paragraphs 
 verbatim. The fact is, that the tendency of the public 
 mind is more towards views like mine than others, for 
 mine is pure faith in redemption, temporal and spiritual ; 
 and, moreover, it is the destruction of bigotry. Only, I 
 have systematised it more, and presented it syllogistically, 
 whereas in the public mind it hovers like Xoah's wandering 
 dove.' 
 
 His brothers are still a source of trouble to him, some 
 remaining a source of trouble to the end. ' I am glad to 
 hear Joseph is im^Droving; he had much need of it, for when 
 here he was the most timid, puddock-haired thing I ever 
 saw, he was so ignorant of life. If he had served twelve 
 months' apprenticeship at thieving, it would have done him 
 good. I was vexed, but could not help laughing at his sim- 
 plicity, and really did not wonder at his return (home). 
 Little Jack Garland was more than a match for him in all 
 common knowledge. To send out a boy to teach that had 
 never read the history of his own country, never read a 
 novel, never read a play, was horrible ; for although novels 
 and plays may be trifling things, they are so intimately con- 
 nected with life and literature, that a teacher at least should 
 know what they are ; but there is something more in them — 
 I find that by light-reading a fluency of speech and ease of 
 expression is obtained. It is a school for language, and 
 gives a confidence in conversation which is essential to pro- 
 motion ; but my father's obduracy has spoiled the language 
 of the whole family, and I don't mean to intermeddle now; 
 
A CHURCH OF EXCLUSION. 203 
 
 but in Joseph it was very apparent, and in the girls it is 
 equally so.' 
 
 The feelinf? in Scotland towards James Smith, who had i4th Dec 
 
 1838 
 
 departed from ' the fold ' of the Established Church, and 
 run mental riot in England, was somewhat bitter. In my 
 father's house, where he was much beloved, his opinions 
 were never adverted to, nor indeed do I believe they were 
 ever properly imderstood. But ' I care very little about the 
 slander and chit-chat of the Glasgow bodies about me, and 
 I hope you care as little. It will affect you more than me, 
 being so near to them ; but I have too much to think of to 
 care about scandal. I am quite out of the field of it here ; 
 
 London is too large for scandal I am fulfilling 
 
 my destiny, that is enough, and it is a higher destiny than 
 a mere money-making destiny, for my aim is a high aim, 
 whatever be my success, and I have no doubt that I will 
 receive my reward. Money cannot pay me — I must live, 
 and I do live ; but as I look far beyond money, my thoughts 
 never rest upon it, except as a temporary means of getting 
 on, as a sort of vehicle for transporting me from stage to 
 stage. You are differently circumstanced, and I do not 
 blame you. Every man to his vocation. 
 
 * I got a long poetical letter from the Spirit a few weeks 
 ago (doubtless from his sister, who was a graceful versifier), 
 and sent it an answer, with a few queries. I do not know 
 whether it answers letters and queries or not ; but if it do 
 not, it has no business to write. There is a very great want 
 of charity about the Irvingites, owing to their not knowing 
 another strain of the Spirit but their own. Those I am 
 most acquainted with are far more charitable, and speak of 
 the Irvingites as having a visitation of the Spirit without 
 ever doubting it. How can that be a universal church which 
 is so exclusive 1 Does the sea refuse a river because it is 
 not clean, or because it does not run north or south 1 It 
 receives all the rivers, and so with the universal church.' 
 
 It is always interesting to note the peculiar direct practical 
 
204 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALLST. 
 
 manner in which he reaches a decision. If he deals with 
 wliat the world terms ' visionary ' ideas, he does so with a 
 clever, crisp snap that is equally prevalent in his practical 
 dealings. If this man had followed affairs with the same 
 energy with which he followed a * mission ' he could not 
 have failed of success, at least for want of qualifications. 
 But then, of course, he never could have taken sufficiently 
 deep interest in worldly success. 
 
 ' I have got the offer of a situation for Thomas in the 
 island of Tobago, on the estate of Lord William Douglas, 
 £iO, £50, and £60 a year for three successive years, besides 
 boarding — which may lead to the management of an estate 
 if prudent. The climate is unhealthy only to the intem- 
 perate, to the rum and porter drinkers.' He continues, with 
 a complaint which seems to show that his father's family 
 had drifted into dreamland through the gate of Irvingism. 
 
 'As I never know whether my letters reach home 
 
 or not, no answer ever being returned to them, I have writ- 
 ten to you at the same time as to Thomas, as an answer 
 must be returned to me within eight days from this, and no 
 time must be lost. The vessel sails in the beginning of 
 November. It will be as well for you, therefore, to write to 
 make sure work, for I have sent money twice without ever 
 receiving a single notice of its receipt, though I stated 
 expressly my desire that it should be acknowledged,' — a 
 promising habit for a prospective 'manager of an estate,' 
 even if the amiable and cultivated young man had been 
 otherwise fitted for the work. 
 
 Throughout this year he seems to have combined the 
 leader-writing for the Pen7iy Satirist with the lectureship 
 paid by his lady friends, in which he promulgated his views 
 of a Universal Church to all and sundry. A strange com- 
 bination ; and yet he leads us to understand that he did not 
 lose sight of his 'mission' even in the Pennz/ Satirist, 
 although too shrewd to obtrude it there. His correspond- 
 ence at this time is as curiously mixed as his occupation. 
 
HEART ! BEYOND INTELLECT. 205 
 
 A letter from Mrs Wheeler — the first Lady Lytton's mother 
 — in which she speaks of being in torture with neuralgia, 
 and adds, 'pray do not give my address to anyone,' says : — 
 *You are right to try if possible to awaken the dormant 
 
 moral sentiments I can say no more than to wish 
 
 you all the happiness a moral being deserves — but can never 
 enjoy till all around are moral beings.' A peculiarly Irish 
 blessing indeed — only a refinement on ' May blessings follow 
 
 ye all the days of ye'r life and (the donation being 
 
 inadequate) never overtake ye ! ' Letters from readers of 
 the Sheplierd who had come to lean upon his intellect ; 
 letters from old followers at Edinburgh or Ashton-under- 
 Lyne, who still looked to his moral character for aid ; and 
 letters, too, occasionally from pugnacious correspondents, 
 who loved his personality, but pursued his opinions with 
 Scottish pertinacity ! 
 
 We get a deeper insight as we proceed into the character 
 of the ladies who were aiding James Smith in his ' mission.' 
 Throughout his career women of refined minds with ' unful- 
 filled aspirations ' drifted naturally within his sphere. Also 
 naturally, these aspirations took the usual shape. The 
 ' hearts ' of his correspondents seek a resting-place as much, 
 or more, than their intellects. N"o wonder he will none of 
 a purely intellectual church, and demands what he feels and 
 knows will alone satisfy the craving of the majority — an 
 object of love as well as of adoration — a sentimental even 
 more than an intellectual creed. 
 
 Mrs. Chichester and Mrs. Welch were apparently widow 
 ladies, or at least they had been dissatisfied with their social 
 relationship in this respect, and few thinking beings can be 
 otherwise. They, however, take invariably a broad, imper- 
 sonal view of the subject. 
 
 ' The subject that most deeply interests us at the present 
 
 moment, and to which we want to call your attention, 
 
 is that of Love or Marriage, or the human origin, the pro- Marriage, 
 pagating of the human species. As we find so much infelicity issJ. 
 
206 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 in marriage, there must be some deep-seated disturbing cause 
 in human beings, brought into activity through marriage, to 
 produce this universal unhappiness.' Mrs. Welch then pro- 
 ceeds with a very subtle disquisition, tending to show that 
 only tlirough mutual love of a spiritual nature can a being 
 with spiritual tendencies be produced. ' Is the specific man 
 an image of the generic man — ought he not to be so 1 If he 
 
 be not so, why is it ? As evil is deep-seated in the 
 
 specific human being, and constitutionally engendered, it is 
 very certain that no teaching, no preaching, no instruction 
 will remove it ; yet, so far as information goes, teaching, 
 preaching, and instruction must be used to give man verbally 
 a notice of his disorganised existence and his disorganising 
 
 conduct As the marriage discord is found to arise 
 
 out of a universal elementary rupture, we may truly declare 
 that the marriage concord can only arise out of primary 
 concord with Spiritism. So far as we rectify marriage we 
 rectify disease ; and when marriage is once right, disease is 
 impossible. The self-engendering Marriage Act is the Pan- 
 dora's box out of which come all the named and nameless 
 miseries, and it is only a true and righteous marriage that 
 
 can close the box and stop evil for ever Parents 
 
 are called upon by Spirit to propagate Spirit^ and out of the 
 non-fulfilment of this command, in difi'erent degrees, comes 
 all the difi'erences that we are trying to repair by external 
 
 co-operative principles To marriage we must not 
 
 look for the reparation of the evil, but, in covjundion ivith 
 the Spirit^ for the prevention of it.^ In this, the last letter 
 
 preserved of Mrs. Welch, she goes on to say ' but 
 
 really you appear to be a hold one in so fearlessly attacking 
 man and spirits ; and by doing so, you resist love in yourself 
 and in all others. We wish you would address your ques- 
 tions to Love itself, and let it be the answer within your- 
 self *It will reply to all your questions, and its answer will 
 be created words, or the essential reality which your con- 
 stitution needs ; and which, with your only half or one-third 
 
ONLY HALF ORGANISED. 207 
 
 organised being, you in vain search for — find you have not 
 — find you can not — find you will not. You are not yet 
 organised to look out for anything ; you must be looked at 
 and made whole before you think of speaking out of iclwle- 
 ness.' This is signed, 'Yours in faith.' The death of a 
 young friend seems to have prostrated her mentally ; and the 
 two lady friends, who were all in all to one another, and 
 united in their pursuits, became engaged otherwise. 
 
 Mrs. Chichester writes from Ebworth : — * Mrs. Welch's i9th i)t 
 
 1839. 
 
 illness seems quite to have changed the happy position in 
 which I stood. The importance of the work we were really 
 devoted to is even more strongly impressed upon my mind ; 
 my delight in it would be the same.' But many useful 
 schemes had closed almost unintentionally. She continues : 
 — ' Mrs. "Welch and myself have often regretted we had not 
 your friendship personally as well as by correspondence;' 
 but except through the knowledge of his personality 
 obtained through their mutual friend Mr. Greaves^ — to 
 whom the ladies express great indebtedness — there is no 
 evidence of any personal knowledge of the Shepherd until 
 some time after. The correspondence was not dropped with 
 the subsidy, and there is no evidence of disagreement. ISIrs. 
 Chichester lays her finger on the weak point in his Universal 
 Church with great acumen : — ' The question of authority 
 still appears to remain in a degree unsettled ; but it is one 
 that leads to subjects of discussion, in which the mental 
 powers are deeply exercised. I feel it to be the spirit 
 within, and that the authority is felt according to the perfect 
 or imperfect state of the organic structure it acts on.' 
 
 He must have suffered from the removal of his ' lecture- 
 ship,' as he continued his addresses for a time without sujiport, 
 but was ' pinched to the very quick,' having been * rooked,' 
 to use his own boyish term, by his brother Thomas. Still, 
 he has every confidence in his ' innings ' coming when the 
 political struggle ceased, as he expected. He must have 
 1 The Mystic. 
 
John. 
 
 208 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 been greatly supported by such letters as he received. A 
 Glasgow working man writes : — ' Although I have long been 
 one of your flock, this is the first time I have ventured to 
 address you ; yet I have often felt an ardent desire to 
 express to you the deep obligations I am under to you for 
 releasing me from the bonds of a narrow and sectarian 
 religion, which taught me to regard God as a partial and vin- 
 dictive being, punishing his creatures eternally for obeying 
 his own mandates. Such a doctrine as this is not calculated 
 to place God or his creatures in a very elevated position. 
 It created in man that vindictive feeling which God was said 
 to feel towards his children,' — and much more that showed 
 how careful a student he had been of his ' master's ' works. 
 Similar letters were numerous. In a letter to his brother he 
 tells much of his work at this time, 
 cth Jan. ' Your fears respecting a prosecution of the Penny Satirist 
 
 James to are groundless. We have never heard of it. It must have 
 been the Satirist, a sixpenny paper like the Dispatch^ which 
 undergoes many prosecutions for attacks upon personal 
 character. We are never personal, and are therefore tame 
 to the lovers of scandal. We have always rejected it. Last 
 week I got a letter from a marchioness with some scandal in 
 it respecting one of Her Majesty's ladies of honour. I tore 
 it, and refused it insertion. Our paper has a good moral 
 character among all who know it ; but many are prejudiced 
 against it because it is cheap, and because of its name, and 
 
 because they do not know it I have been in a 
 
 capital school for training. In fact, no study, no reading 
 for a whole century could have given me anything like the 
 tact I have acquired by practice and conflict with the 
 
 infidels.' 'It pleases Providence always to keep 
 
 me strait. I am like an eel squeezing itself through a 
 tight loophole.' 
 
 ' This letter was received on the last day of the 4d. postage 
 
 — the 9th Jan. — the penny postage commencing on the 10th ! ' 
 
 How he could expect to be otherwise than ' strait,' with 
 
THE MERCENARY PRESS. 209 
 
 his hand against every man, it would be difficult to under- 
 stand. ' O^Yen and I are scarcely on s]3eaking terms — ctii April 
 I write against him, and speak against him, and make no james to 
 secret of my opposition to the worst peculiarities of Owen- owe"n. 
 ism, viz., its infidelity, community of movable property, 
 equality, and its non-responsibility, and abrogation of mar- 
 riage. On all these subjects I have at all times opposed it, 
 and approve only of its intentions, and its doctrine of cir- 
 cumstances, as taught by the most respectable of its advocates 
 here, and by Owen himself, who is universally acknowledged 
 by all who know him to be a good, well-meaning man, if 
 not a wise one. His good-nature has gained him as many 
 
 friends as his doctrine.' He proceeds to defend 
 
 Fourier and Spinoza from misrepresentation, although ac- 
 cejDting the views of neither. He considers Fourier 'a 
 venerable sage, one of the greatest men ever France pro- 
 duced Moreover, Fourier is a Christian, and a 
 
 strong believer in Christianity, altogether a different man 
 from Owen : a man who hated Owen, and called him a 
 quack.' After expounding Spinoza's views so far, he pro- 
 ceeds : — ' I am not advocating Spinoza's opinions; I am merely 
 exculpating him from the false accusation of a London Sun- 
 day hireling, who writes merely to the pulse of the public, 
 and is directed in doctrine and style not by the genuine 
 impulses of conviction and sincerity, but by the sale of his 
 weekly garbage, and who would probably justify both 
 Spinoza and Fourier, and perhaps Owen himself, for a 
 weekly increase of a thousand subscribers. The Press alto- 
 gether is the most mercenary, diabolical thing imaginable. 
 It is as corrupt and established as the Churches. The 
 editors are tied down to party forms or articles, and the 
 public appetite is now so spoiled that in order to stimulate, 
 recourse must be had to high-seasoning, such as invention, 
 caricature, abuse, scandal, and scurrility ; nothing goes down 
 so well as personality : for all that I have never written a 
 page of personality, never attacked a single individual's 
 
 P 
 
210 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 private character I have sent the Dispatch for two 
 
 weeks It has the greatest circulation of any paper 
 
 in England, perhaps in the world. It is a blackguard paper 
 for all that, and belongs to an attorney, who has made a 
 fortune by defending thieves before the tribunals — a thief's 
 
 attorney His turn comes next year, or rather this 
 
 coming November, to be Lord Mayor, and the Times has 
 been appealing to the citizens of late to consult the dignity 
 and respectability of the civic chair by passing him over. 
 Publicola (the editor) was sentenced some months ago to 
 the treadmill for one month for abusing his wife, to whom 
 and her child he allows only 10s. a week out of his at least 
 £800 a year. Talk of Socialists as you may — a man like 
 Robert Owen is worth a thousand Publicolas. The great 
 trick of the Dispatch lies in its abuse and opposition. It 
 finds fault with everything, and thus gets credit amongst the 
 vulgar for patriotism, by being pleased with nothing. But 
 with all its circulation and all its wealth — for it is the 
 richest Sunday paper — it is not to be seen in any respectable 
 
 coffee-house Almost all the Sunday press is trash 
 
 — made up of the daily papers — almost all stolen ; even the 
 Dispatch plunders by pages without acknowledgment.' We 
 find later the owner was rejected by a large majority. 
 
 'I have got my pjor trait painted. It. is said to be a very perfect 
 likeness The artist has sent it to-day to the exhibi- 
 tion at Somerset House. He seems very proud of it, and calls 
 it his best performance. It is a present he means to make me. 
 
 ' ^Micaiah is at the seat of war between France and Morocco. 
 He will get a fright. I am glad to hear of his growing tolerance. 
 It is good to live amongst heretics for a while.' His brother 
 had gone to be tutor in the family of Drummond-Hay, in 
 1st June Tangiers. He shrewdly writes : — * I am much interested in 
 the present movement of the Church (in Scotland). It will 
 lead to important results. It is working undesignedly the 
 cause of the Chartists ; for, by introducing universal sufirage 
 into the Church, it sanctifies it for the State.' 
 
 Hee above. 
 
 1840. 
 
THE FRENCH A RABBLE. 211 
 
 111 discussing the condition of France, then clamouring for 
 war under Louis Philippe, he observes : — ' But the Revolu- IflP^^- 
 tion has a game to play yet, and the propaganda of Repub- 
 licanism and Infidelity "svill be let loose once more. It is by 
 means of this propaganda alone that France obtains the 
 sympathy of the rabble of all nations. And reaUy, from 
 what I saw^ of France, I think that the French themselves 
 are a rabble — a low-minded, frivolous, scoffing, ribald, pro- 
 fane people, by no means likely to take a high standing in 
 the world, and only fitted to commend themselves to Char- 
 tists and such-like glory men, to whom the highest vu'tue is 
 that of sticking a knife in the guts of an aristocrat.' 
 
 Besides lecturing every Sunday evening, he holds private 
 conversational meetings on Wednesday evenings, and believes 
 he is ' insensibly gaining considerable ground.' A ' Universal 
 Chart ' in a handy form has also appeared as a sort of creed. 
 
 ' Because in my former letter I called the Chart a suitable ?th Nov 
 substitute for the charter, you have confounded principles 
 with persons, and taken it for granted that I expected to 
 convert the pike-and-gun philosophers to my doctrines. I 
 had no such idea. I should as soon expect to convert a 
 herd of swine. And Churchmen and Dissenters are quite 
 as irrational as Chartists,' — 'a race of men with whom I 
 have as little to do as with the man in the moon,' he writes 
 again. 
 
 In his effort to bring all science into harmony with his 
 views, he does not fail to examine the principles of each. 
 
 ' I have been studyint:' for some time the theorv of music, — -'t»» i>lx- 
 
 J o ^ - ' 1S4(». 
 
 the mathematical principles of it, and its analogy with other James ti. 
 sciences, — and have made some beautiful discoveries of my 
 o^vn, which I have not seen anywhere else. Thus I have 
 never seen the relation between the Mathematical Trinity 
 and the ^hisical Trinity. 
 
 ' A sine of 90, a chord of GO, and a tangent of -45 are the 
 mathematical trinity. Xow, these proportions give the three 
 perfect concords. Unison, a i, and an octave ; or 1, § and h 
 
212 
 
 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 26th Apr. 
 1841. 
 
 lOtli July 
 1841. 
 James to 
 John. 
 
 lllhOct. 
 1841. 
 
 Tyiic-settin! 
 Machine. 
 
 Other analyses and deductions follow. But he does not 
 claim a deep acquaintance Math music : — ' I went to the top 
 of St Paul's this day fortnight for the first time, and I have 
 never been in the Queen's Theatre yet, though it is the 
 largest in London. But as it is chiefly Italian operas that 
 are there performed, it is only for those who understand 
 music and Italian, and I don't know much about either. I 
 am at present translating one of Fourier's works from the 
 French, which is to be published at intervals in a new 
 weekly stamped paper at 6d. I will also write an article 
 in it every week. It is to be called the London Phalanx' 
 For this he wrote the ' Review of the Week,' and sometimes 
 several other articles. He writes jubilantly of the progress 
 of his views, and after giving examples, adds : — ' Unity 
 and universality are everywhere being attempted by some 
 means or other, however imperfect.' ' I sent you two numbers 
 of the Phalanx purposely, as I had some letters on the pro- 
 phetic numbers, which I thought would be interesting to 
 your mathematical genius ; but you do not even allude to 
 them.' Some keen and cutting remarks followed this. 
 Then: — 'I think men were never so low-minded as they 
 
 now are Man cannot go lower than matter, and 
 
 politics, and dead cats, and electioneering oratory. For 
 however vile a sectarian fanatic is, there is a grandeur about 
 his ideas and his hopes which does not belong to the poli- 
 tician.' 
 
 ' The Fourierites are now commencing practically in France. 
 They have procured an estate of 1500 acres near Dijon. 
 
 It cost £60,000, and Mr Young, the brother of 
 
 the mechanician whom you saw, is going to superintend it 
 himself. It is expected to have 400 or 500 people on it in 
 a few months. Fifty are already gone. 
 
 ;Mr Young expects to be able to print the Phalanx with 
 his new machine in a few weeks. He means to set up one 
 number, at any rate, as a specimen. He is making one on 
 a different princijDle, and it is almost completed.' ^ 
 
THE PROPHETIC NUMBERS. 213 
 
 Again an access of enthusiasm has possession of him, and 
 he is carried away by his analogical faculty to lose himself 
 amongst prophetic numbers. ' Works on jDrophecy are now sth Jan. 
 the only religious works that have any vitality in them. 
 Keith's work on prophecy has already seen twenty-five 
 editions.' He considers the evidence clear and increasing, 
 but they all err in considering the Roman Church Anti- 
 christ, 'whereas the whole Christian world is Antichrist.' 
 In forwarding No. 90 of Tracts for the Times, in order to 
 give an idea of the Oxford School, he does so in a wild letter 
 full of prophetic numbers and calculations — a very strange 
 production. He is evidently deeply excited, in very bad 
 health, and with a return of his old inspiration: — 'The 
 philosophical era is breaking up; national churches are 
 parts of the broken body — heads of the hydra ; they are all 
 coming down ; the Scotch Church is a limb of Antichrist ; 
 the battle-axe of the Lord is hewing it to pieces ; the crisis 
 is at hand, and " pell-mell " is the word.' He is also still 
 on the analogy of music and prophecy, &c., and discusses 
 my father's optical experiments — afterwards published as a 
 ' Theory of Light.' ' I am sorry that you did not explain 29th Mar. 
 
 your discovery to me Send me a letter to the james to 
 
 Phalanx, and we will print it and try its effect. The circula- 
 tion being small, need not alarm you.' This paper was now 
 his hobby for the time being. It was owned and edited by 
 Mr Doherty — a remarkable man, of whom we shall hear 
 again, and who only died recently in Paris. 
 
 His excitement, and the chronic stomach complaint that 
 seems to have got hold of him, culminated in a feverish 
 attack, and he is confined to bed for a few days; after 
 which : — ' I don't feel very well, but still I can go about. 5th May 
 You will see from this last Phalanx that it is the last.' His 
 position upon the paper must have h^an practically editorial. 
 At the end, his articles are notified in the index. During 
 the course of the paper the sub-head is changed from ' Theory 
 of Charles Fourier ' to ' L^niversal Unity,' and it is evident 
 
214 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 tliat his was the controlling hand. It dragged on as a small 
 monthly magazine till 1843. 
 
 ' I cannot understand your theory of light as yet. You 
 began at the wrong end. You forgot to tell me what you 
 meant to prove by your experiments and illustrations, so 
 that I was left to my own conjectures respecting their mean- 
 ing. The best way is always to begin at the end in such 
 cases, to show at once what you mean to prove, before you 
 begin to prove it. However, I sha'n't give it up ; I wiU try 
 it again. "What you say of analogy, however, is, in my 
 opinion, merely the reverse of the truth : so far from throw- 
 ing obstacles in the way of discovery, it will very much 
 further it. Who studied analogy more than Newton ? He 
 even made out an analogical vocabulary, and his discoveries 
 were not more true than his analogies. I believe that dis- 
 coveries are never final, and never can be used to any profit- 
 able account unless they are analogically understood What 
 is the use of an insulated fact, indejDendent of its relation 
 with other facts? You may just as well sit down to read a 
 table of right ascension and declinations, or any other dry 
 statistical details. Whenever science becomes analogical, 
 it becomes interesting and popular ; and that is the reason 
 why scientific books and lectures are so dull and dry.' 
 
 istii June Again he writes : — ' It seems to me that by denying refrac- 
 tion you will entangle yourself, though there may be a much 
 better mode of explaining its phenomena than that which at 
 present prevails. I never liked the denying system. A 
 new affirmation is more powerful than a negative.' Recur- 
 
 istiiJune ring to this subject of optics, he writes: — 'I believe that 
 there is much to be learned upon that and many other 
 scientific subjects — that science must be made much more 
 simple than it is at present. How the light can be red is, 
 however, a difficulty, unless you prove red to be the uni- 
 versal. Now, white is proved by experiment to be the 
 universal, for the seven colours in musical proportions 
 on a top, or a revolving circle, make white. This is an 
 
 184 
 
 1842. 
 
AN AUTOMATON VESSEL. 215 
 
 analogical objection ; and as I, notwithstanding all your 
 doubts, have more faith in analogical reasoning than 
 any other, I consider it a powerful objection. I have 
 sent you a P. Sicitirist), containing a very clever cut and 
 a Trip to Canterbury.' So this continues to receive his 
 attention. 
 
 The Irvingite branch of the family do not agree with 
 him any better than formerly. His brother has returned 
 from Tangiers. ' I have not heard from Glasgow since 
 !Micaiah left this. He did not even write to say whether 
 he had arrived or not. I know not what to make of him, 
 but he is by no means a very agreeable person to have about 
 me. He may do very well amongst his own little clique, wdien 
 everything goes on according to their own little notions, and 
 when they can abuse every party, and misrepresent them as 
 they please without contradiction, ascribing all praise and 
 glory to their own little church. But I think I have seldom 
 seen a better specimen of a sour, sulky fanatic than 
 Micaiah. If the Spirit of Trutli dwells in such minds, it is 
 not worth much.' It was cruel, in the first instance, to fix 
 such a dreadful name on the poor man ; unfortunate that he 
 should -have drifted into a ' sect ;' disastrous that his com- 
 paratively slow but tenacious brain should have taken to 
 languages. He took long to mellow, and only did so wdth 
 improving circumstances, which enabled his refined and 
 scholarly instincts to take refuge in the study. 
 
 ' Doherty is keenly employed upon an automaton vessel at isth Oct. 
 present, and expects to go to sea this month in it. It moves ^^^ 
 the paddles without steam, by means of wind and wave. 
 This vessel has a float attached to it of equal specific gravity 
 with the w^ater. It is below the keel; and as the vessel 
 heaves, the float resists with a power equal to the weight of 
 the vessel — minus the resistance of the water — and moves 
 the paddles by a simple machinery. The heavier the sea 
 the stronger the power. In rivers, the power is insufiicient, 
 and in still water, zero. He is in high hopes of making a 
 
216 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 fortune, and superseding steam. But I suspect that he is 
 doomed to some bitter disappointment.' 
 aist^Dec. 'Doherty's boat went down. The float pulled it in head 
 
 foremost, and Stollmeyer had to jump for his life. Doherty 
 has never sjDoken to me of it, but I heard it, and that he 
 lost his razors, &c., which he had put in it, intending to 
 take a trip to France. He was not in it when it sunk. It 
 cost .£15 to raise it, and there is about <£30 of damage done. 
 They are repairing it. Stollmeyer says it was merely an 
 accident, as the float was not fixed at both ends. I used to 
 bother him long ago with the idea of its going down, when 
 he invited me to go to France in it. I asked him if France 
 lay at the bottom of the sea.' 
 
 Withal, he also had a fancy boat which will not sail as 
 yet ! ' I read the article in the Witness with partial pleasure. 
 It is a sad bigot, but a good party-paper, and well conducted. 
 The Church is in sad trouble here, as well as in Scotland. 
 They only want a convention in England to reveal the 
 breach that has been made. It is all sport to me. How 
 very ignorant they are of the prophetic numbers ! ' &c. 
 
 Those unfulfilled prophetic numbers have got as firm a 
 hold of him as the boat that was to ' drive itself ' had of 
 Doherty. He curiously held that Daniel did not get the 
 prophetic numbers by science, as my father asserted, but by 
 revelation ; and yet he sensibly acknowledged that ' the pro- 
 phetic numbers are all astronomical, and are the best key to 
 the knowledge of cycles, eras, history ! ' The Phalanx and 
 its career were repetitions of the Crisis, and Smith held the 
 same position towards both. ' I have just received your long 
 critique on the Phalanx : what you say is all reasonable 
 enough, and yet the Phalanx is reasonable also. In the first 
 place, it is not addressed to the 'peo'ple. It is too dear for 
 them. In the second place, it is not dependent upon sale for 
 
 its continuance I expect nothing from Fourierism. 
 
 It is one of the steps up to Universality. The process of 
 the spirit in these latter days is a systematic, progressive. 
 
HIGH-MINDED YOUXG MEN. 217 
 
 ascending process from the ultra-negative of infidelity, &c., 
 up to the ultra-positive, from the material up to the spiritual, 
 from the democracy up to the aristocracy and monarchy, 
 -svith corresponding modifications of doctrine for each in the 
 ascent, but not manifesting the highest truths until the 
 ultimate movement. This is not the ultimate. But it is a 
 wonderful work of providence for all that. Five young men 
 of fortune — unmarried, brothers, the eldest I suppose about 
 thirty-five — spending their money in this honourable way, 
 instead of squandering it in debauchery like others of their 
 age. They are Scotch, too, and belong to the county of 
 
 Aberdeen Owenism is the ultra-negative. It was 
 
 extinguished last year, and these men came forward in the 
 month of December to bring forward Fourierism, which is 
 
 neither negative nor positive, but a sort of medium 
 
 It will fail, and yet it will not They who have 
 
 universal ideas of God can understand such movements. As 
 for the vulgar, they are mere beasts ; and if we had ten 
 millions of them, we could do nothing with them. We don't 
 want them. I want them for the P.S., but not for the 
 Phalanx. If you understand these things, you will set your 
 mind at rest about the Phalanx, and not concern yourself 
 when it comes down. Still, the proprietors of the Phalanx 
 don't know this. They think it a final movement.' 
 
 I will complete this chapter by giving his peculiar view 
 of the movement in the Church of Scotland which led to 
 the Disruption : — ' I received the Memorial with the list of I'tu Du< 
 the clergy. I am glad to see them possessed of such spirit. 
 As for their motives, I do not care a rush about them. I 
 look to the principle of the question, independent of the sin- 
 cerity of the parties. What have we to do with other men's 
 motives — let them answer for themselves. The principle is 
 independent of the motives of individuals, and the principle 
 is the original principle of the Scotch Church, and its rejec- 
 tion by the State is a rejection of the principle of the Esta- 
 blishment, which, by the by, was never received, but the 
 
Movement. 
 
 218 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERBALIST. 
 
 Tiie Disrup- clcrgy iievei before had the spirit to assert it. The Church 
 Catholic of Scotland has been altogether a lie, and it is time for the 
 Presbyterians to be what they profess to be — independent of 
 the State. Moreover, I see it in connection with other 
 movements that will follow it. The Puseyites are also pre- 
 pared to shake off the State as a drag ; and after all, this is 
 a great part of the Catholic movement. It is a Popish prin- 
 ciple — throughout we are going back to the Standard. 
 
 ' " Back to the Church, the Standard, all must come." — 
 Joanna Southcotte. Even my father is becoming Catholic 
 in his way — who could have believed it ten years ago? 
 The independence of the Church of the State is one of the 
 leading principles of Catholicism. It is the very basis of it, 
 and the Scotch Church — the most Anti-Catholic and most 
 Protestant of all — is the first to assert it collectively. If you 
 look at this great movement as a home scheme of individuals, 
 you are under a cloud. It is a great providential move- 
 ment, of the issue of which they themselves have no idea. 
 It is the beginning of a great Catholic movement, into which 
 other elements will flow in spite of them, and give the cur- 
 rent a different turn — as was given to the river Euphrates 
 when Cyrus turned the waters into another channel.' 
 By Catholic, he did not of course mean Romanist. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE ' FAMILY HERALD. 
 
 Amongst James Smith's correspondence are a few letters in 
 an uneducated hand, regardless of grammar or spelling, and 
 signed Mary Ann Marshall. They are from the once noted 
 medium of that name, and are mainly requests for assistance. 
 ' The Spirit has moved her ' to ask for a little help. They 
 are simple and rather touching letters, from a woman in 
 connection with whom and James Smith a curious story has 
 been current since the days of my youth, and which I find 
 recorded in a notice of James' life in The Spiritual Magazint 
 of May 1874. 'When Mr. Smith visited Mrs. Marshall 
 with the manuscript of the first number of the Family 
 Herald in his pocket, "The Word " through her told him 
 that his journal would be read in every household in the 
 land. It certainly reached a sale unprecedented in journal- 
 ism, amounting at one time it is said to about half a million 
 copies.' But it was no instantaneous success. Indeed it 
 could scarcely have been, as it came out at first, and con- 
 tinued for some five months, in large broad-sheets like the 
 ordinary daily press, ere it took the form that it ever after 
 retained. 
 
 * Doherty has been so busy with his boat or naval auto- 6th Dec. 
 maton that I have seen little of him. We are bringing out James to 
 
 another penny paper, by the machine, next week 
 
 It will have no cut, and be very respectable.' 
 
 ' I do not write any more in the Phalaii.r. I suppose it I'th Dec. 
 will drop soon. They are beginning to feel it burdensome, james to 
 However, if the Herald go on I shall be very glad of the 
 
nth Dec 
 IS42, 
 
 220 SHEPHERD s:mith the universalist. 
 
 change for a while, as I was longing to get out of Fourierism. 
 In fact, I never was in it, but related to it — as an important 
 though imperfect movement.' 
 
 The new paper was altogether a remarkable novelty. It 
 'Fcmii;/ was a ' Literary Curiosity, being the first specimen of a publi- 
 cation produced entirely by machinery — types, ink, paper, and 
 printing.' The types were set by Young's patent composing- 
 machine, a woodcut of which, with women composing, is the 
 headpiece of the first series of the Family Herald. ' From 
 careful calculation it is found possible to compose the entire 
 of this publication, print off 10,000 copies, and that the last 
 sheet printed, by the aid of railroad and steam conveyance, 
 might be read 170 miles south and 300 miles north of Lon- 
 don (that is, at two points nearly 500 miles asunder) within 
 the twenty-four hours. Thus, by a happy union of mental 
 and mechanical skill, capital, and enterprise, the public can 
 obtain, at the trifling expense of one penny, such a mass of 
 information and amusement as was inaccessible to their 
 fathers at even fifty times the price.' In place of italics, the 
 machine was obliged to employ spaced letters ' in the same 
 manner as is still practised in Germany, the birthplace of 
 the art of printing.' With novelty of production, there was 
 a determination to amuse and interest without degrading; 
 and thus the motto was adopted, — ' interesting to all ; offen- 
 sive to none.' 
 31st Dec. « The Herald has done well as yet, between 15 and 20,000 
 
 James to a Week, not enough to pay however. We have a sad bother 
 with Young and the machine, and Doherty interferes, and 
 we cannot get the work done regularly. It is not the fault 
 of the machine, but for want of a master printer to manage 
 the work. Young is trying to get it off his hands. He 
 made an offer to Cousins, which Cousins refused ; but should 
 he not find a better customer, it is possible that it may yet 
 come into Cousin's hands, and then it will go like Hghtning. 
 If Young does not get rid of it, I fear the Herald must be 
 set up in the old way, and the machine will be damned for 
 
UNIVERSAL CHINESE. 221 
 
 many years to come. There are too many masters. On 
 Saturday last, when we were behind, and Cousins himself 
 was working hard to get the thing forward, Doherty came 
 in and gave all the hands a holiday, and shut up the place — 
 a piece of ill-nature for which he will yet pay most likely. 
 He seems quite ill-tempered ; his boat sinking, and nobody 
 caring for his Fourierism, makes him quite out of humour, 
 and this only makes matters worse. The present number of 
 the Phalanx is a most extraordinary production, and shows 
 that he is going into the wilds of the desert of thought.' 
 
 Daguerrotype now comes in, and portraits can be had in 1st Feb. 
 London at £1 each. 'The Family Herald still goes on, and 
 rising weekly, but not up to paying mark yet. We must 
 have 20,000 weekly, and we are not much more than half- 
 way yet, actual sale, but the increase is about 500 weekly.' 
 Although he does not purpose to propagate his views of 
 Universalism in the Herald, they icill crop out. China is 
 coming prominently before the western world ; and in dis- 
 cussing their civilisation, he says : — ' The Chinese may be 
 called Universalists in almost every sense of the word. 
 They eat everything, they worshij) everything, and they 
 believe everything.' 
 
 Curiously enough, he seldom writes of his brother Dr. 
 Robert Angus Smith with respect — ' his heart is better than 
 his judgment ; ' he is so simple that he is not at all sure of 
 him or his intellect. ' He wrote to me some time ago, and 
 his letter is merely a confirmation of what I said to you ; he 
 says he thinks we can prove anythin'g by figures. If so, 
 there is no distinction between truth and error. But if he 
 can work with any other numbers as I have wrought with 
 the Prophetic numbers, he will give some reason for his 
 assertion, but assertions without reasons are the weapons of 
 fools.' Robert Angus Smith has now gone to Lord Love- 
 lace's, and we have a peep at several movements of interest 
 in the then world of London. 
 
 ' The Irvingites seem now inclined to inquire into Joanna's 2n<i Mar 
 
 ^ 1843. 
 
l:Jth May 
 184:J. 
 
 James to 
 John. 
 
 222 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVEKSALIST. 
 
 visitation. Two of the evangelists sent by Mr. Drimimond 
 have visited Mrs. Marshall twice, and sat several hours, and 
 acknowledged that her visitation is from God. They are " 
 coming back on Sunday, when I expect to meet them there. 
 A message was sent by the Spirit to Mr. Drummond ; what 
 may be the result of it I know not. But it is pleasing at 
 least to see the heads of the Church inrjuiring into such 
 things, which is more than the tails will do.' 
 
 ' The Herald gets on slowly, but there is hope of it suc- 
 ceeding.' 
 
 AVhether owing to the stern struggle with poverty in 
 London, or to his own nature, there was a certain ruthless- 
 ness about the character of James Smith that no struggle, 
 however despairing, could have produced in the mind of his 
 brother Robert : — ' The Phalanx office is now shut up. The 
 Phalanx is dead ! The machine is stopped. The Herald is 
 now printed in the old way. Doherty and I have had a fall- 
 out about Fourier. He seems crestfallen about the failure 
 of his attempt. But he must learn to be more universal, and 
 give up the worship of dead men and their bones.' 
 
 But the Herald is improving in circulation since the 
 change to the quarto size ; and he is delighted that it has 
 gone back to the old style of printing, as it now gives him 
 no trouble or concern. 
 
 At first we find little change in the character of the leaders 
 
 supplied to the Herald from those supplied by him elsewhere. 
 
 'Universality,' if not so prominent, is still all-pervading. 
 
 But his analogical faculty makes him always readable, and 
 
 gives a quaintness to his expression which must have done 
 
 much to introduce him into the general reading-world. 
 
 8th Apr. Here is an example : — ' We have now treated of the four 
 
 Famiin great elements of society — the Church, the Monarchy, the 
 
 Hemio. Aristocracy, and the Democracy ; and now, as the head of 
 
 this article intimates, we purpose to say a few words on ' all 
 
 four.' All four reminds us of a quadruped, and a quadruped 
 
 is a beast which goes on all-four. It may seem very strange 
 
ARISTOCRACY OF VIRTUE. 223 
 
 to call society a beast, but so it lias always been called in 
 mystical language and in heraldry. ]N"ations are represented 
 by beasts ; and even in heaven, the scriptural imagery informs 
 lis that four beasts, full of eyes before and behind, surround 
 the throne of God, and give honour and thanks to Him. A 
 lion is a respectable beast. Xo man is affronted by being 
 called a lion. An ass is not so respectable, but it is evidently 
 not the fact of its being a quadruped alone that makes it so. 
 There is no harm, therefore, in saying that society goes on 
 all- four.' This is a pure parcel of conceits ; yet it ushers in 
 a paper full of shrewd common-sense, as well as philosophical 
 acumen. Doherty supported Fourierism in an early number, 
 in opposition to Smith's summary of Socialism ; but the 
 editor replied in a strong letter, in which he shows Fourier's 
 limitation, and disclaims Doherty's interpretation of the 
 doctrine. At the same time he pays a high compliment to 
 his opponent : — ' He is beyond the school in which he is 
 
 matriculated There is power of mind and purpose 
 
 of heart in him to make him shine in a much wider sphere 
 than the advocacy of an individual system.' 
 
 There is no wild 'pandering to the multitude, although he 
 caters for it. The number for 6th May 1843 comes out with 
 mourning columns for the Duke of Sussex, and an apprecia- 
 tive biographical notice. The early numbers are remarkable, 
 however, for that mingling of instruction with amusement, 
 that endeavour to spread amongst the many the freshest and 
 most vivifying thought of the time, that it always retained 
 in his hands. Perhaps the one fault is that he never fails to 
 feel that he has a ' mission.' In an article on ' Rich Men,' 
 he ends : — * There is a higher principle than commerce ; a 29th Apr. 
 higher power than money ; a higher aristocracy than a landed Family 
 aristocracy. And society must advance to that ; it must rise ^^^'"''■ 
 up to that. It must rise up to the spiritual aristocracy of 
 wisdom and virtue ; to the wealth of mind and soul ; to the 
 power of justice and truth. The secret lies all up there, 
 howsoever it may be found or attained to. AYhen found, it 
 
224 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 will be good for us all ; but till then we must be content to 
 fight and brawl about inferior objects, which when gained 
 will be of little service to us, or our children after us. All 
 power is invisible — no man ever saw power ; and true wealth 
 is invisible. It is neither cattle nor gold, but something to 
 which cattle and gold must all one day belong, if ever men, 
 women, and children live happily together in this nether 
 world.' 
 
 But the philosophy, as a rule, is tempered with judgment 
 and practical sense. His influence is exerted towards the 
 stability of society, however he may wish to improve and 
 purify it. ' Regarding proj^erty merely as the extension of a 
 man's self, there can be no doubt of its high and holy mission 
 in the divine plan of the government of the world. It gives 
 development to numerous active faculties which would other- 
 wise lie dormant. It stimulates to industry, to prudence, to 
 virtue.' He has no faith in perfect happiness. ' It is not 
 only impossible; it is undesirable,' for then the king of 
 terrors — death — would become the terror. Here comes in a 
 
 20th May peculiar characteristic turn : — ' In fact, the sufferings of life 
 make men too indifi'erent about death. Many seek it as a 
 blessing. Rich and poor destroy themselves to get rid of 
 life. Death is not terrible enough Avhen suicide prevails ; 
 and the only thing to make it more terrible is our increase of 
 enjoyment in life.' 
 
 A study of this little paper that James Smith edited for 
 years is a review of an epitome of human life and pro- 
 gress. All great questions are carefully considered and 
 shrewdly reasoned upon by the editor ; and one is startled 
 to come upon 'new' ideas, such as the tunnelling of the 
 channel, or even the type-setter with which it was originally 
 composed, on every other page. The Biblical bias of the 
 editor is still very apparent, and the Book is ever referred to 
 for illustrations. He objects to the mixture of philanthropy 
 
 sid June and commerce : — ' The law of Moses forbade the yoking of 
 an ox and an ass together in one team, or wearing woollen 
 
THE ' FAMILY HERALD.' 225 
 
 and linen together in one garment, and Xatiire itself forbids 
 the reproduction of hybrids or mules. The yoking of the 
 ox and the ass, in the literal sense, is but a small trans- 
 gression ; but when spiritual functions are unequally yoked 
 with commercial functions, or when one invades the sphere 
 and usurps the office of the other, then indeed there is cor- 
 ruption and mischief, whatever may be the motives and 
 intentions of the parties.' 
 
 However philosophical the usual leaders might be, there was 
 no lack of lighter matter: — 'We do not consider scientific 
 matter as more instructive than good moral tales. The ancients 
 employed tales, j3arables, and fables as the media for instruc- 
 tion, and in many respects they were wiser than we 
 
 jS'ot withstanding all that is said about science, it is dull 
 reading even to those who praise it. ^lan is not a very 
 scientific animal. He is a story-teller, and so is woman, and 
 so are their little ones — they are all story-tellers.' The moral 
 element was so deeply important to him, at the same time, 
 that he could not give proper credit to Shakespeare : — ' The 
 spirit of the present age seems to feel a want in Shakespeare, 
 notwithstanding the eloquent encomiums of his worshippers 
 and the zeal of his commentators.' All he seems able to 
 acknowledge is that ' the talent of Shakespeare is of a very 
 high order,' but people are carried away by the glamour of 
 his name. At the same time, many of the dramas printed 
 as his are considered spurious ; others ascribed to him are 
 not amongst the collection. Some never printed amongst 
 his are considered by Schlegel his finest works. He con- 
 cludes that the merit of Shakespeare is not so peculiar after 
 all ; * for there is no way of testing his works but a certi- 
 ficate from his printer that they arc actually his 
 
 Is not this a proof that if any man of the present day were to 
 write plays superior to Shakespeare's they would be treated as in- 
 ferior for want of his 7iame, which has monopolised all dramatic 
 renown.' In all this his literary judgment, which was exceed- 
 ingly sound, has been influenced by his moral aspirations. 
 
 Q 
 
226 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 "We are every now and then reminded how near we are to 
 1843"^"'^ another moral world — an article upon 'Duelling' recalling a 
 social condition that is happily expelled from our island. 
 
 In presence of his e very-day public, he no doubt had suffi- 
 cient worldly tact to refrain from opposing their prejudices. 
 His ' Answers to Correspondents ' are assuming something of 
 the interest, if not the importance, they afterwards attained, 
 and here Ave find little personal traits as Avell as opinions. 
 ' As a general answer to three particular questions, we reply 
 that there is some truth in everything which creates enthu- 
 siasm in the human mind. But there is always error in 
 particular systems (Mesmerism, Phrenology, and Astrology). 
 
 In respect to astrology, there is an immense amount 
 
 of rubbish mixed up with some exquisitely beautiful analo- 
 gies.' In * How we Burden Ourselves and how we are Bur- 
 dened ' are some quaint observations of great utility at a time 
 when complaints were rife against public burdens : — * Few 
 people complain of the burdens which they impose upon 
 themselves, but we all complain of the burden that is imposed 
 upon us. Our passions are mostly all tax-gatherers.' A 
 special article in this connection is devoted to an attack upon 
 'Smoking, Snuffing, and Chewing,' and the necessity for 'an 
 apostle ' ' to clear the atmosphere of social life, and give the 
 rising generation some better air to breathe than that which 
 their fathers are polluting.' It is strange that he did not 
 manage quite to clear his mind from ' custom ' in this matter ; 
 for while connecting it in principle with intoxicants, he yet 
 allowed himself a glass of ale or wine, but not a pipe or 
 cigar ! In the matter of wearing beards, however, he was a 
 supporter of an innovation which he did not live to see. 
 While the early numbers of the Family Herald^ in folio 
 form, were pretty much in style what they remained all along, 
 they had one difi'erence in a series of Natural History articles, 
 with illustrations ; and his observations show that, while he 
 lived the greater portion of his intellectual life where natural 
 history observations were impossible, except in connection 
 
COMPARED TO LAMB. 227 
 
 with the highest animal, ' man,' yet he took a deep interest 
 in the subject. 
 
 Amongst the more curious articles is one entitled 'The 
 Law of Manners : How the Queen might be usefully em- 
 ployed as a crater for the press.' After alluding to royal 
 authors : — ' Do not suppose, however, that we want the 
 Queen of England to write a book, and put herself at the 
 mercy of the critics of the press, who would be sure to lower 
 the dignity and character of her office by trying the merits of 
 her productions at the bar of a presumptive philosophy.' 
 But he holds — ' That the Queen would confer a very great 
 boon upon society by attempting, at least, to raise a standard 
 
 of social manners It would be a good foundation 
 
 for further reform.' He evidently regards forms and cere- 
 monies, too, as of more consequence than we should have 
 anticipated, but the artistic nature within him struggled with 
 the philosophic, and demanded agreeable surroundings. The 
 articles occasionally ' revel ' in analogies. IS'othing else can 
 express the wealth, nay, the recklessly lavish character of 
 some of the articles in comparisons and conceits, as well as 
 their quaint paradoxity. They must have sorely tried the 
 staid middle-class folks, to whom the paper otherwise 
 appealed. Yet he writes : — ' My leaders in the Herald were 7th Oct. 
 very highly extolled last week; they were compared to 
 Charles Lamb's celebrated Letters of Elia — who the reviewer 
 is I know not — and was rather surprised at such praise from 
 such a quarter.' Articles on Organic Chemistry, by a pupil 
 of Liebig, are no doubt by his brother. Dr. Angus Smith, who 
 was at that time idle, on his return from Germany. 
 
 Those who are now accepting the doctrine that ' genius ' 
 is * insanity,' might read with advantage the article on 
 * Thin-skinned People : ' — ' The sensitiveness of the mind, 
 like that of the skin, is the source of irritability of nature, 
 and the thin-skinned are those who are most affected by this 
 uncomfortable excitement. "We will not call the excite- 
 ment disease, like some people, for we believe it to be the 
 
2 28 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 vGiy nurse or parent, the vital principle, of genius itself, and 
 of more than genius — of all that is accounted noble and 
 precious in the moral and intellectual nature of man.' At 
 the same time, it is very apt to degenerate into selfishness. 
 He is specially at home with ' St George and the Dragon,' 
 in whicli he revels in mythology, and is satisfied — ' If we 
 shall have directed the attention of our thoughtful and 
 intelligent readers to the study of the inspirations and revela- 
 tions of national fable and legendary lore, in which lie hid, 
 amid much ore and rubbish, many brilliant gems and 
 pearls of providential wisdom.' Ideas which are now 
 common were thus introduced by James Smith to the many, 
 floated abroad, as they were, sandwiched between tales by 
 noted writers, or writers only noted to the readers of this 
 particular organ. All the devices of the present day are to 
 be found — riddles, enigmas, rebuses of every description ; 
 facetiae collected by one with a keen sense of the ludicrous, 
 a sense which alone kept Smith from still wilder extrava 
 gances in his experiments upon life. 
 
 Rich in solid instruction are those leaders that year after 
 year came from his busy pen ; earnest, yet with the play of 
 a pleasant fancy in them as well. In a ' sly look ' at life he 
 warns his readers : — * Beware of your day-dreams — your 
 secret thinkings and feelings. They are webs for your own 
 
 weaving, they are garments for your covering Be 
 
 only as anxious to dress your minds as to dress your bodies, 
 and both ladies and gentlemen will appear more beautiful and 
 engaging to each other's hearts.' Surely no other writer of 
 the time could dress up such moral diet so that it would 
 meet the digestion of the ordinary public. Fancy articles 
 on ' Chivalry, or the Beau-Ideal of a Man,' in a spirit of 
 poetic regard, for *the soul of chivalry was, however, not 
 
 wealth The man, therefore, was brought better 
 
 out.' He loved not humanity smothered in costly raiment, 
 buried under a balance at his banker's, lost in selfishness and 
 sunk in luxury. A discussion between Science and Poetry 
 
POST OFFICE ESPIONAGE. 229 
 
 follows, as he continues to introduce his Scottish love of 
 metaphysics into the hitherto uncongenial soil of the south. 
 
 Such subjects as 'Mourning and Half-Mourning' are i3tii July 
 treated with sympathy, while acknowledging their non- FamUy 
 utility. ' AVhen man can read the mysteries of Providence ^^''^^'^■ 
 in his own living habits and customs, he will then be ^\dser 
 than he can ever become by decomposing matter, converting 
 gases into solids, or solids into gases.' Up to about this 
 time, however, the little paper had not secured that hold 
 upon the public that meant permanence, for we find him 
 writing ' everything is so precarious with us that I can loth June' 
 never speak with any certainty of the future.' jamcs to 
 
 The great subject of discussion at the moment was the '^°^^"" 
 action of Sir James Graeme in opening private letters 
 (Mazzini's) in the Post-Office, as Secretary of State for the 
 Home Department : — ' Governments are all criminals against 20th Juiy 
 
 the law of absolute justice Neither the duty of 
 
 the universal, nor that of the individual, is as yet clearly 
 understood ; the law for governments and for individuals is 
 not yet defined. Principles of politics, morals, and good 
 
 manners are not yet divulged ; and there is nothing 
 
 that society so much wants as a law-giver — a second Moses 
 or Confucius — an occidental Shem, to settle such disputes 
 for ever by a superlative authority.' He looks upon the 
 act as possibly justifiable, but requiring justification ! 
 
 "While the ' lurid lidit ' of the Wanderinn Jew of Eugene 27th Juiy 
 
 1844 
 
 Sue is running through the paper, in a leader upon ' Artifi- 
 cial Light and Late Hours,' the editor remarks that the 
 
 Queen, * although a late diner is an early riser She 
 
 has also given a check to card-playing and family gambling, 
 which prevail to a most alarming extent amongst all classes, 
 and are particularly adapted for artificial light, whether of 
 gas or tallow, oil or wax.' 
 
 In a remarkable article on the penny press he shows how 
 much earlier it originated than most suppose. Continuing, 
 ' Some friends have said to us, they should like to see us better 10th Aug. 
 
 ' "^ 1844. 
 
230 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 employed than in writing for a penny paper. We reply, we 
 cannot be better employed. We should consider our articles 
 
 thrown away by being published in a daily paper 
 
 With respect to the morality of the Penny Press, we may 
 safely affirm that it will stand an honourable competition 
 with that of any other department of periodical literature. 
 
 The paper is a moral censor, and publicity is the 
 
 guarantee of decorum. Certain advertisements, even of the 
 morning and evening papers, would destroy the circulation 
 of any penny paper in London.' Certainly people require 
 more leisure than they commonly give to a daily paper 
 to read such essays as that on ' I and We : ' — ' The we 
 accomplishes great revolutions, and overturns dynasties 
 and empires, but without the / nothing is finished. The 
 Napoleon completes what the Convention began.' In 
 ' War, the Good and the Evil of it,' there is religious faith 
 and hope, but no false sentiment. The editor is not flattering 
 the poor nor playing to the rich ; he will not even accept 
 Athenaeums and Mechanics' Institutes, except as very partial 
 educators. The moral and spiritual is to be kept prominent 
 amid all this outcry over science and popular instruction. 
 At the same time, they are valuable, and are welcomed along 
 with baths and wash-houses for the poor, which ' the 
 unscientific ancients enjoyed thousands of years ago.' The 
 physical uncleanness of the poor is merely ' the material 
 
 counterpart of the spiritual condition of the rich 
 
 the one clothed in the rags of woollen and cotton, the other 
 clothed in the rags of self -righteousness.' All the fads of 
 that time — and are they not also the fads of this 1 — come 
 under review. 'Allotments of Land' are treated with 
 plentiful knowledge, even of the Chinese system. He does 
 not believe in them : — ' The artisan and the artist fly from 
 such men — civilisation runs away from them, merely because 
 they have not a surplus left after supplying their bellies 
 with food. It is with this surplus that man's superior 
 nature is cultivated.' 
 
IMPORTANCE OF DRESS. 231 
 
 This iimvillingness to accept every novelty as an improve- 
 ment — the determination of the editor to analyse every 
 movement, — brings down upon him a severe castigation, 
 following an article headed 'Movements — Political and 
 Domestic' The critic commences — ' We have on many 
 occasions spoken favourably of The Family Herald. We 
 considered that it was an excellent, intelligent, and enlight- 
 ened periodical, and though not professedly dealing with 
 politics, still possessing an undercurrent of wholesome and 
 generous interest in behalf of the industrious millions — 
 the very class indeed by which it is principally sup- 
 ported.' But this article is too Tory! ' The entire reason- 
 ing of the writer, throughout the essay, condemns the system 
 of " intimidation ;" as if anything was ever conceded by the 
 Government save under the influence of the "pressure from 
 
 without." We are extremely sorry to see the 
 
 columns of an otherwise clever and useful periodical dis- 
 figured by such illiberal notions and aristocratic sentiments 
 as' — those they quote. How could he have any (except 
 intellectual) sympathy with the multitude ? ' Coarse habits 
 produce coarse feelings, and they originate in coarse feelings. 
 We attach great importance to dress and food. We should 
 like to see all the people suitably and elegantly clothed, and 
 polished in their manners.' The million had not yet sought 
 his paper. ' Our papers still go on. The Herald is up to i4th Nov. 
 45,000. It has scrambled up pretty well ; and if it could james t ) 
 only get up to 100,000, it would be a capital property.' "^"^'"" 
 
 O'Connell was prosecuting his efforts after repeal, and the 
 Irish question was as keenly debated then as now. The 
 editor deals with it as a part of the question of nationality, 
 which he considers 'a very great evil,' and not in unison 
 with the law of progress. ' For Ireland to make an attempt stu July 
 at present to regulate her own affairs would only be greater Family 
 
 ruin, if possible, than she now experiences That 
 
 she is oppressed by England at present is true, and England 
 herself perceives it and regrets it. But England does not 
 
232 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 willingly opjiress Ireland. It is the age that oppresses her, 
 the spirit of the Protestant era — the scientific, manufacturing 
 era, vrliich England has embraced, and which Ireland has 
 scorned. England would have been delighted if Ireland 
 
 had accompanied her England, in self-defence, 
 
 has been compelled to employ a severity of discipline in 
 Ireland with which she would have willingly dispensed.' 
 
 It is c?e-nationalising of the Government that is 
 
 Avanted : — ' We have the name of an Imperial Government, 
 but we have not got the fact. The parliament is the Parlia- 
 ment of England ; neither Scotland nor Ireland has a parlia- 
 ment. They are conquered rather than united to England. 
 An imperial power ought to be a super-national power.' 
 
 There is scarcely an essay that would not bear quotation, 
 but those on ' The Capitals of the World ' seem to have at- 
 tracted special attention ; they can only be appreciated entire, 
 however, they are so rich in thought and illustration : — 
 'I am glad you like the two articles on the Capitals of 
 the World. The Northern Star, in reviewing the Famihj 
 Herald, noticed them, and said that were they published in 
 one of the dear periodicals they would " be cried up as equal 
 to anything in the English language." However, after all, 
 they have a more abiding form as they are, for there are 
 more bound copies of the Herald perhaps than of any of the 
 dear periodicals. Biggs sells, or has already sold, about 
 2000 bound copies, and he has had 3000 sent in to be bound. 
 5000 in all from his shop alone. I question if there be 
 1000 bound copies of any volume of BJaclncood, or even of 
 the Edinhurgh Review, in existence. AVe have reprinted 
 ^"0. 1 of the Herald six times, and there are 50 numbers at 
 present reprinting, so that we keep three printers employed. 
 The current number is printed at one office, and there are 
 two other offices for reprints. Several of the numbers have 
 been reprinted four or five times. We charge 2d. for re- 
 prints, and print only 2500. This pays, so that the reprints 
 pay themselves, and become a source of profit. There are 
 
SCOTCH CHEAP EDUCATION. 233 
 
 5000 or 6000 monthly parts sold; these are all charged 6d.; 
 some have four numbers, others five. There is a little profit 
 from them too. Were it not for all these little things it 
 would be impossible to go on, and if only one number goes out 
 of print it spoils the sale of all the rest.' He adds—' I don't 
 expect the Pioneer to do more than pay itself, if it even do 
 that.' So that after several years— nearly four— the little 
 Family Herald was barely holding its own ! But no doubt 
 it was creating a demand and insinuating itself, and its 
 quaint views of men and manners and all things under the 
 sun, into the minds of those who were intellectually stimu- 
 lated by the vigorous and invigorating thought supplied. 
 He has not forgotten that his intellect and training is 
 Scotch : • The system of education in a Scotch college is of }2«i Sept. 
 a very simple description. It is chiefly remarkable for its 
 economy, which renders it particularly displeasing to rich 
 EngUsh gentlemen and old Tories, such as Sir Charles 
 Wetherall, who objected to the foundation of King's College 
 and University College in London, that they would intro- 
 duce the Scotch system of education into England — in other 
 
 words, cheap education A very small number are 
 
 able to keep pace with the course of instruction 
 
 But the great fault of all modern teaching, namely, laxity of 
 discipline, pecuHarly applies to the Scotch universities. 
 
 The divinity students are the main support of the 
 
 Scotch universities, which may be said to exist solely for 
 the Church. In this respect the Scotch difi'er much from 
 the English universities, which may be said to be nurseries 
 for statesmen as well as for churchmen.' There is consider- 
 able change for the better in this direction, but discipline is 
 still the ' one thing lacking.' The great question then ad- 
 vancing rapidly, and now once more upon us, 'The educa- 24th Oct. 
 tion of the people ; a puzzle for modern times,' is treated 
 with characteristic courage. He objects to the teaching of 
 science by the State, as it is a trade, and should be learned. 
 To open the gates of knowledge by providing the three R.'s 
 
234 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 is enough. ' AVitli these three means Avell acquired a man 
 of mental energy is enabled to procure instruction for him- 
 self at a very moderate rate in every branch of knowledge 
 to which his fancy may incline him.' At the same time he 
 objects to religious instruction in school, as the clergy have 
 no right to throw their work on the poor schoolmasters. 
 We pass from a consideration of the 'Migratory habits of 
 London servant girls,' to the 'Effect of Magnitude and 
 Centrality on the Character ' in London, and arrive at ' The 
 Question of Ireland merely the Question of the "World.' 
 
 ' Ireland is the world in miniature All the evils of 
 
 the old world are here exhibited within so small a compass 
 as to present a problem for solution to a government which 
 has the right and the power to attempt it. The evil is 
 exaggerated on this one spot, but still it is precisely the 
 same sort of evil which in various degrees prevails every- 
 where else — the evils of a singular contrast of riches and 
 
 poverty, power and wastening, fertility and sterility, 
 
 a good and an evil in co-ordinate existence, with an apparent 
 impossibility of the fusion of both, or the conquest of either. 
 
 But even if Ireland could be saved and made equal 
 
 to England it would be but a poor thing at best 
 
 Ireland is better known, for she is louder-tongued, and is 
 better represented by her hired agitator ; but she does not 
 monopolise all the miseries of life — she only represents 
 them. And even when justice is done to her people they 
 cannot by any possibility be raised above the general condi- 
 tion of the world at large, so that a very small amount of 
 service can after all be done for them. The great Ireland 
 of society, then, still remains the great problem for solution 
 — ^how to feed the poor — how to prevent social misery, 
 destitution, and crime — how to moralise the rich, and teach 
 them to use their wealth for the benefit of society at large, 
 instead of employing it solely or chiefly for the gratification 
 of their vanity and their sensual passions. This constitutes 
 a moral problem. It is a work for a moral law and for a 
 
'moral' legislation for IRELAND. 235 
 
 moral legislature. A financial legislation cannot legislate 
 for it, any more than a fish can come out of the water and 
 browse upon the land, or a dog can take its flight like a 
 pigeon through the air. Spheres are kept by nature distinct 
 from each other, and a financial law is as distinct from a 
 moral law as earth is from water, or air from both.' In 
 dealing with the question of the ' Poor : the two modes of 
 treating them — moral and political,' or the charity of sjtq- 
 pathy, and the charity of the poor-law, he makes many 
 shrewd observations. ' The poor-law does not please in its 6th_Mav. 
 present state. It never pleased in its former state. It never 
 
 will please in any state It is admirably adapted 
 
 for bad men, bad givers, because it forces them to give ; and 
 for bad receivers, for it exercises no private moral super- 
 intendence over individual character There is no 
 
 regenerating influence in it.' 
 
 ' The Human Hand and its five fingers ' is one of those 
 analogical essays that the soul of James Smith loved. He 
 seems to feel its weakness. ' Are you any wiser for reading 
 this article? then enquire what wisdom you gain from 
 science or philosophy ! For we are tired of matter-of-fact 24th Apr. 
 causes and effects, and scientific nomenclatures — "words with- 
 out thoughts, which Shakespeare asserts "to heaven never 
 go ; " shadows without substances ; and we long for that 
 highest of all knowledge which goes direct to reasons, and 
 searches for them in the great and universal analogues of 
 Nature and Providence — the wisdom of God.' The com- 
 parative value of the ear and the eye is discussed in a similar 
 spirit, but with a definite decision. 
 
 Only the other day ! And yet here is the question of the 
 political emancipation of the Jews in the ascendant : ' The 
 history of the Jews is the history of the world. This can 
 be said of no other people. They are the only universal 
 nation.' This is the prelude to an article in a curious vein 
 that is almost prophetic. The editor holds that the Jew 
 can really take the oath as a Christian by faith, while an 
 
236 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 lionest infidel cannot take it. The first honest infidel was 
 Mr Bradlaiigh, and he refused to take it, and he ought to 
 have been freed along with the Jews. ' The introduction of 
 the Jews will put an end for ever to the exclusive Chris- 
 tianity of the British Constitution. It will accomplish, how- 
 ever, in name, that which is already accomplished in fact ; 
 and in this respect, at least, it will be more true, because 
 less hypocritical, than it is at present. The Liberals will 
 make a poAverful effort to emancipate the conscience of the 
 infidels ; and the legislature may just as well do this at 
 
 once There can be no doubt, we think, that the 
 
 emancipation of the Jews portends a falling away of Jewism, 
 and it is coincident with a decline of sectarian feeling in 
 both Jew and Gentile.' He does not grieve over it. This, 
 however, is more a moral than a political change ; he has no 
 great hopes from the latter : ' a reformation of morals and 
 manners is of much greater importance than any mere poli- 
 tical device, which has no more moral influence over the 
 population than changing the places of chairs and tables, 
 beds and sofas, has over the morals of a family.' This ques- 
 tion of morals is paramount. The destiny of the nation is 
 dependent upon it. 'We are not likely to be destroyed 
 either by barbarians or earthquakes ; but we may be super- 
 seded if we do not advance in moral as well as in financial 
 value ; for wealth very soon leaves a people when it loses 
 its moral worth.' 'With all their revolutions the French 
 
 are no better off than we are ourselves Such a land 
 
 requires reform, but as the water-carrier said when he heard 
 the cry of " Liberty and Equality ! " " All gammon ! What ! 
 do they mean to say that they are willing to become water- 
 carriers." We know nothing less practical, less orderly, more 
 unprincipled and delusive than a mere political system. It 
 is sure to fail, for it wants the two leading passions of refined 
 humanity, as Lamartine, with the characteristic spirituaHty 
 of a poet, regards them — Love and Religion. Woman and 
 the soul have nothing to do with common politics; and 
 
ANTIQUITY OF 'DISCOVERIES.' 237 
 
 Socialism has hitherto failed to captivate the one for want 
 of the other.' Elsewhere he returns to Lamartine, and 
 quotes his opinion after calm reflection in the solitudes of 
 Nature. ' " I am neither an aristocrat nor a democrat. 1 29th Arr. 
 have lived long enough to see the two sides of the human 
 medal, and to find both equally unsound. I do not ascribe 
 any exclusive capacity for improving humanity either to 
 aristocratic or democratic institutions. The capacity is only 
 in a divine morality, the fruit of a perfect religion." This is 
 truth. He has spoken it at last.' His experience of the 
 French did not prepossess him in their favour, nor in favour 
 of their ideas. The Patriarchal idea is more to his mind 
 than those that deride authority, ' There is nothing new cth May 
 under the sun. Hence the importance of the past in the 
 development of the future, and the ephemeral nature of all 
 those systems which appear as original conceptions without 
 deriving their life and their prestige from the traditions of 
 ages. The past, the present, and the future are one for ever ; 
 the last is merely the foliage of the first.' In proof of the 
 antiquity of 'discoveries' he is fond of giving examples. 
 ' Dr Sylvester shows from passages in Dioscorides, Pliny, and 
 the writers of the dark ages, that surgical operations were 
 actually performed under the influence of anaesthetics, like 
 those of ether and chloroform, and that no pain was expe- 
 rienced during the operation ' (quoting from the Zoist, which 
 he highly commends for its courage and inde^Dendence). He i^uh May 
 will none of Liberty, equality, and fraternity, which he 
 analyses mercilessly. * In law is the meaning of liberty, and 
 in liberty the beauty and equity of law. Let those two 
 words therefore never be parted. Their divorce is ruin, 
 
 their union is peace The French pride themselves 
 
 in the logic of the Revolution, and they talk of its gospel, 
 its trinity, and its ideal perfection. But we think we have 
 satisfactorily shown the want of logic and the want of con- 
 clusion in its three fundamental terms — a deficiency involving 
 an omen by no means favourable to the amicable and satis- 
 
1849. 
 
 238 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 factory settlement of the republic' It must have been an 
 education to many to read these essays, with their coura- 
 geous and incisive investigation, from a philosophic stand- 
 point, into every great public question. 'Controversy,' 
 however, is never to be the means of really discovering 
 truth, but is merely indispensable to intellectual develop- 
 21st Api. ment ! * One of the fine arts ' is ' Courtship,' and the editor 
 thinks he knows a great deal about it, as he has received 
 thousands of letters on the subject ! So he proceeds to give 
 his views, which are very shrewd, not unwise, and of course 
 very useless, except as agreeable reading. In dealing with 
 * Anarchy : the use of it as a negative power,' he is on surer 
 ground. ' A political revolution consumes the phoenix, and 
 terminates the reign of the old bird. Many old birds have 
 died within the last year or two, and the worms are already 
 appearing in the ashes — many new constitutions are grow- 
 ing These European States are all rapidly re- 
 covering their old monarchical forms. But yet they have 
 all undergone a change for the better. More of the spirit of 
 
 liberty has been infused into the spirit of law 
 
 There can be no doubt that the republicans will all fail 
 throughout Europe. But they have not risen in vain. The 
 year 1848 will be a memorable year in the history of the 
 nations. It will have changed the political and ecclesiastical 
 condition of the European continent. Even the Pope, when 
 restored, will not be the same sort of Pope as before. Kome 
 has been invaded by a spiritual power. The ideas which 
 
 were formerly kept out are now in The Anarchy 
 
 has not been useless. But still the people seem glad to get 
 rid of it. It is social death and dissolution — a very few 
 years of it would annihilate a people.' One might read the 
 volume for 1848 of the Family Herald, however, without 
 discovering that Europe was in the throes of a new birth. 
 
 What can one make of an essay headed ' Phrenology of 
 History ; or, the Head of the Universal Man ; ' and yet it is 
 a most suggestive article and full of fine thinking, although 
 
OUR DEGRADATIOX OF WOMEN. 239 
 
 overweighted with analogies for the average reader. More 
 practical is the next on ' Criminals :' — ' The law has a soul i2thMay 
 and a body. The body of the law is gross and visible, and 
 the poor man violates it. The soul of the law is refined and 
 
 invisible, and the rich man violates it When rich 
 
 men keep the law, the poor will not require to read books 
 and hear lectures to teach them good morals. They will 
 feel the power of morality, and joyfully submit to it. But 
 not till then. Why should they ? ' 
 
 ' Man is a mine, he is worked as a mine, and the rich bring 
 their gold and silver out of the flesh and bones of the poor. 
 It is the operation of the original curse of labour,^ and the 
 rich are merely the taskmasters to execute the sentence. 
 ISTone the better are they for their oflice, however, when 
 they dare to exceed the boundary of their commission.' This 
 is the commencement of an article headed ' The Sweating 
 System,' in which a shameless condition of labour at the 
 London docks is enlarged upon, and a moral law demanded 
 to free the men from bondage, as the ' coalwhippers ' had 
 been freed in 1844. 
 
 Self-glorification of a sect or a country always raises the 
 editor's ire. An essay on ' Woman in the East and West ' 6th Apr. 
 is called up by an article on the degradation of the women 
 of the East, in an Edinburgh paper. He demands a more 
 generous and liberal judgment, and quotes freely to show the 
 high estimation in Mdiich they are held by many Eastern 
 peoples : — ' It is necessary thoroughly to understand the 
 manners of the East before wc assert the degradation of 
 woman there and her elevation here. There is no country 
 in the world where woman is permitted to sink lower than 
 
 in Protestant countries Protestant Britain is not 
 
 yet qualified to teach either Christian doctrine or Christian 
 morals Our morals are better in some respects 
 
 ^ This is a conventional expression, and not his matnrcil opinion. 
 He was fully cognisant of the moral, even more than the physical, 
 necessity for labour. 
 
2-iO SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVEllSALIST. 
 
 and worse in others ; so that it is really a difficult matter to 
 determine whether a Christian country be more pure than a 
 Pagan country or not ; for it is very certain that in our own 
 land some of the most revolting scenes that humanity can 
 
 present are daily witnessed Charity is greater than 
 
 faith, and of that there is little in this land. The Pagan 
 East is the land of charity.' 
 
 Elsewhere, he will not permit the bourgeoisie to lay the 
 flattering unction to their souls that they are specially 
 privileged in the matter of morality ! 
 
 The Family Herald seems at length to have attained a 
 31st Oct. secure position : — ' They have mentioned the Family Herald 
 James to vcry lionourably in the last blue-book report on public 
 '^"''"' libraries. Mr. Ewart (chairman) asks ^Ir. John Murray — 
 
 " Is not the Family Herald a most unexceptionable publica- 
 tion? Answer — It is a most valuable periodical, but it 
 does not circulate amongst the lowest class of the population. 
 Is not its circulation 125,000 a week? — I have heard so," 
 It is mentioned in other places also as the leading periodical 
 in point of numbers.' So that he has at last got the ' audi- 
 ence ' for which he craved, and to whom he supplies his 
 special views of a moral w^orld and a universal church, dished 
 up with a tact and skill which has kept growing steadily. 
 
CHAPTER XYIIb. 
 
 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
 
 TuAT the human heart is pretty much the same at all 
 times and in all countries is a common enough saying, but 
 manners and customs so change its outward expression, that 
 an insight into its workings at any one period must he an 
 index to a certain extent to the comparative refinement of 
 feeling of the time. As the letters we are going to quote 
 from are all of a date that can do no injury to the writers, 
 even if they were discovered, we do not hesitate to give 
 them pretty fully ; and they appear to us to point to a tone 
 of mind less robust and much more refined than would be 
 prevalent in the same class at the present day. The 
 'emancipation of women,' in the first instance, has assimilated 
 the sex more to their brethren, and has made their tone of 
 mind, on the average, more wholesome and vigorous in 
 dealing with the great and all-powerful questions of love and 
 marriage. For these, after all, are the prevailing themes of 
 the correspondence, along with religion; and having given 
 quite sufficient of this elsewhere, we will confine ourselves 
 mainly to the more mundane expression of love. Of the 
 thousands of letters received, all were destroyed, except a 
 bundle sent my father to show the caligraphy. Every 
 conceivable complication has apparently been brought before 
 the Editor ; and the letters commonly begin in the same 
 strain — by applying to him as the support and refuge of 
 forlorn damsels of all degrees, to Avliom his replies are always 
 wise as well as kind. ' I have been engaged to a gentleman coia lover, 
 for several years, but I am afraid he is not very much 
 
 B 
 
24-2 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 attached to mo, as he never comes to see me, and writes but 
 seldom — his letters certainly breathe of constancy and 
 devoted affection {hut then it is very easy to lorite ichat one 
 does not feel) — he pleads as an excuse for not paying his 
 respects to me, being an officer in the army he cannot con- 
 veniently obtain leave of absence. iS'ow, dear Sir, I have stated 
 the exact case to you : situated as I am, do you think there is 
 any harm in me laughing and joking with the gentlemen I 
 am acquainted with in this town % My friends pronounce me 
 an incorrigible flirt because I receive bouquets from one of 
 the male tribe on one day, a present another, &c., but I am 
 so fond of fun and nonsense that I often rattle on to them, 
 and say things I repent of afterwards. jSToav what would 
 you advise me to do, as my real love treats me so coldly? Is 
 there any impropriety in receiving flowers and flirting a wee 
 bit in his absence ? ' To this cold lover we have a counter- 
 
 lieice poise in the following : — ' Will you have the kindness to say 
 
 ■which is likely to be most endurable as a husband to a lady 
 some years their junior, a widower of forty with two 
 children, or a bachelor of forty who says he has none? and 
 can you tell me why their manner of wooing is so different 
 to that of younger gentlemen 1 to me it appears such a fierce 
 sort of courting, and almost frightens me, although I am 
 half inclined to be attached to one of them.' This lady signs 
 herself 'Yours affectionately,' and the correspondents generally 
 seem to feel themselves intimate acquaintances of the Editor. 
 
 A Skeleton ] ' My father is a man of high standing in the government 
 and in society, and I am his only daughter. I am about to 
 be married to a nobleman, of whose affection for myself alone 
 I am certain. But (dare I say it 1) on leaving the opera the 
 other evening followed by him, I was made too fully aware 
 by a wretched creature in the street that her first misfortune 
 M'as attributable to him. You cannot imagine my misery 
 since that evening. I returned home at once, without 
 attending the reunion at which I was due, feigning indis- 
 position as my excuse. I have not mentio'ied to anyone my 
 
TROUBLESOME DAUGHTERS. 243 
 
 too well-founded suspicions, for I have no mother, no 
 adviser. I said a few kind words to the girl as I passed 
 her, pretending not to understand her language or agitation 
 at the sight of my lover, but on our return from Sydenham 
 on Saturday a bunch of flowers was thrown into my carriage 
 by a woman who disai:)peared among the croAvd. I called to 
 the footman to stop the postillions, but my lord prevented 
 his doing so, and his visible agitation told me too well that 
 he guessed who it was. Pray tell me, ought I to break off 
 this alliance 'i Am I to break his heart and my own by a 
 separation that would kill us both ? Or shall I rish my 
 happiness and marry him, in koines of reforming him 
 afterwards, Advise me, Sir, for I am sorely perplexed. I 
 would give up everything I possess — beauty, rank, fortune — 
 for the peace of mind I had before that night. . . . — An 
 Earl's Daughter.' To this, a comedy may well succeed, 
 the hero being naturally ' an Irishman.' ' Some time 
 since I became acquainted with a gentleman and his family, 
 consisting of his wife and three blooming young ladies, 
 daughters, the eldest of whom is thirty-five years of age, the 
 second thirty, and the youngest and most beautiful of the 
 three is only twenty-five. I visited at his house for upwards 
 of twelve months, during which time I did not, in presence 
 of the family, show a preference for any of the ladies in 
 particular, but secretly and every time I had an opportunity 
 I did not fail to let the youngest know that she possessed my 
 affections, and that I really loved her, a declaration which she 
 appeared Avell pleased with, but told me privately if it came to 
 her father's or eldest sister's ears that it was she I was 
 seeking for a wife, I would at once be forbidden to visit, or 
 have any communication with any person in her father's house. 
 I was completely puzzled when I heard this announcement, 
 to think that members of the same family could envy 
 one another a step in the ascendant. It appears that 
 the eldest young lady and her father are agreed not to allow 
 either of the younger ladies get married before the eldest — 
 
244 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 this began and has been carried on between them for the 
 last ten years, during which time the eldest has not received 
 one single offer — the second during this time could have been 
 married ten times, and I am the seventh suitor who sought 
 the hand of my lady-love. All of these have been peremp- 
 torily dismissed, and told that neither of the younger ladies 
 would be allowed to marry, and some of them were informed 
 if they had chosen the eldest they would have received 
 consent, but this they would not do, and she still remains 
 single, — the old gentleman and herself being as united as 
 they were ten years since as to the mode of disjDosing of gentle- 
 men seeking the younger ladies. This conduct carried on 
 so long towards them has, I think, raised a sf)irit of rebellion 
 in their hearts towards the authors of these decrees, and I 
 think if I now persevered in my suit she would consent 
 to elope with me, leaving them to get the eldest lady off 
 their hands as best they can. But before I would consent to 
 this, I determined to consult you, Mr. Editor, as to the most 
 honourable course I could pursue under the trying circum- 
 stances The only impediment in keeping me from 
 
 receiving the consent of the father to our union is the eldest 
 sister; and if I thought any unfortunate fellow would take 
 her off, I would wait a few months longer. If I get the 
 father's consent I shall receive with her a fortune of £800 ; 
 but I would not mind this if I found that it would be the 
 means of keeping us from being united.' We hope the 
 daughter did not inherit the father's imbecility ! 
 
 Misj^laced and 'contrairy' affection is frequently a cause of 
 correspondence. ' You mention, in answ^er to a correspond- 
 ent, that love could by a lady be removed from one object 
 to another. Now I don't — like your Crimean friend — wish 
 to ask you to select me a wife — I have done that ; but my 
 choice has unfortunately fallen on one who loves another, 
 but believes that other does not love her. She has no objec- 
 tion to my person or position, but has told me that she cannot 
 love me — yet she allows me to pay her attentions ^vhich I am 
 
MISPLACED AFFECTION. 245 
 
 ashamed to own I cannot help paying her. I have some 
 misgiving as to my conduct being regulated by the rules of 
 good-breeding, and would esteem it a favour if you would 
 advise me to hope on, or desist as much as possible, lest I 
 cause a feeling of disgust.' 
 
 This is how a lady states a similar case : — 
 
 ' I am acquainted with a youno: gentleman ^^vho often calls rnrcquitci 
 
 , ^ , , -, T affection. 
 
 on us, but never stays longer than two or three hours, 
 although he lives but a short distance from us. Xow T 
 feel I love him, and am always miserable when he has left. 
 I have often met him at parties, and certainly he has been 
 very attentive to me, but has never given me any reason to 
 believe he loves me. Now, dear Sir, what I want to ask you 
 is, how I can recall my love from this young man ? Oh that 
 I had never seen him.' 
 
 But some ladies were even then more strong-minded, and 
 would not recall or try to recall their misplaced passion, 
 thus : — 
 
 'About three months ago I was introduced to a lady 
 whose age is 19, of rather dark complexion, and decidedly 
 beautifid — her situation in life is such that she has often to 
 speak and move in the society of young men — her attractions 
 being thus exposed, she is much open to address from many 
 admirers ; this, with the recent loss of her parents, and the 
 rather unsatisfactory state of her pecuniary affairs, places 
 her beyond doubt in a position of some little danger. In our 
 conversation she told me she had no friend in whom she could 
 confide, and was almost desponding amidst the difficulties 
 with which she had to contend. My sympathy was awakened, 
 and I promised to be a friend to her, to help her. I was 
 so : the result is that there is not only a material change in 
 her general conduct, but that she has openly declared a 
 passionate love for me ; and though I have never spoken one 
 word to her of this nature, but have at times behaved even 
 unkindly, yet she persists in an effusion of a most distracted 
 passion, to declare that she will yet win me in spite of what 
 
24G SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 I can either do or sa}'. Pray, Mr. Editor, what can I do in 
 this case. I have told her fifty times I can never love her, 
 but it's of no use ; she says she will either destroy herself or 
 conquer.' 
 
 Of course the properly constituted female mind of the 
 time did not love until it was asked to do so : 
 
 ' My best friend and I agree upon almost every subject 
 but one ; now this is about a young gentleman, who pays his 
 addresses rather more pointedly to me than he does to my 
 friend ; now she is always saying something about him, but 
 I don't answer her, and by doing so she says I am in love 
 with him, and says it is shocking of me loving without 
 being asked to do so, and I would rather do anything than 
 lower myself in her esteem, and I say such is not the case, 
 and she says it is, and then we get angry with each other; 
 and I have spoken the gentleman very coldly ever since, and 
 he is astonished and will quarrel with me soon I am sure, as 
 I don't know what to do.' 
 
 Here is a still more delicate situation : — 
 
 'Last summer I was in the habit of going out rather 
 frequently with a gentleman of my acquaintance, though 
 never without a third party — who by the by it was quite 
 optional on my part whether I took or not — but I preferred 
 doing so. He never in zcords gave me reason to suppose he 
 had a preference for me, nor had I the vanity to think so, 
 but it was set down by our friends as a decided match, the 
 friendly intercourse subsisted for some months, and then 
 somehow we became cool to each other, and without a word 
 on either side the intimacy entirely ceased. This occurred 
 last autumn, and until the other day we have never ex- 
 changed a word or a bow, though we have several times seen 
 each other at a distance. About a week since, when walking 
 with a lady and gentleman, he came up to us, shook hands, 
 and offering me his arm in a way which I could not decline, 
 he saw me home just as he used to do, but without a word of 
 explanation for his singular conduct. I did not allude to 
 
A PARAGON OF EXCELLENCE. 247 
 
 it — he acted as though he had seen me only the week before. 
 "What am I to think of this, and how act?' 
 
 The following increases in refinement of situation and 
 difficulty of solution : — 
 
 ' Do you think it correct to correspond with a gentleman 
 for friendship's sake, knowing at the same time he writes to 
 two other young ladies. I should always enjoy his corre- 
 spondence, as it is so sensible and devoid of nonsense, which 
 your sex are so fond of dosing us with. I regard him in the 
 light of a brother, but I see it has a contrary effect on one 
 of his writers (a particular friend of mine) — having ripened 
 into love, it may destroy her peace of mind. Would it be 
 right to acquaint him of this (as he say he regards us both in 
 the same light as sisters, I look on him as a kind brother). 
 If I told him the state of affairs he might imagine I had 
 some motive on my own part, which I assure you is not the 
 case, or ever will be. I have my friend's happiness in view, 
 and it is essential to me ; they are calculated for each other, 
 but lie is blind : from my earliest years we have shared each 
 other's joys and woes, and if I could contribute to her 
 happiness I would gladly do so. I am perplexed in this case. 
 Sometimes I think I will Avrite him no more — I have hinted 
 so, when he tells me "there is great good derivable, as it 
 enlarges the mind, and it is good to scatter the strange and 
 dusky spots which will crowd into the mind." It may not 
 be correct for me to write, but I do so to keep my friend in 
 countenance, and have no other thought in vicAV. He is a 
 young man of fine feeling, very sensitive, tall^ and dark hair 
 and eyes, and strikingly handsome, but his face is nothing 
 compared to his superior and lofty mind — he is not an every- 
 day character, and mixes little in society, and cares not for 
 the world.' And yet the very Scotch name that ends this 
 epistle has not been enslaved by this paragon ! 
 
 Cupid's arrows fly around with absolute disregard — here is 
 another shaft gone hopelessly astray. A young gentleman 
 has been staying at a friend's house for a month. Our 
 
248 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 families exchanged visits, and I met him fre(|uently during 
 that time — the time was fixed for his return home — three 
 times did he defer it on some trivial excuse, and from 
 different occurrences, unimportant in themselves, I was led 
 to believe that I was the cause of his delay. You must not 
 think me presumptuous in coming to such a conclusion. I 
 ^vas not the only one ^A'ho thought so. At last he really was 
 going away, and a party of us were walking in the dusk of 
 the day round the garden. We were separated from the 
 others — I was teasing him about this attraction (for he had 
 confessed to me that there was an attraction), and suggested 
 every lady I knew, likely and unlikely — I pressed him to 
 tell me who it was. At last he said. It is you ! I told 
 him it was all nonsense, but he convinced me there was 
 more in it than I had ever dreamed of. I was beginning 
 to tell him how sorry I was, when my brother called me, 
 and I was ohliged to leave off before I had half explained. 
 I left home on a visit — ^just writing him a tiny note telling 
 him it was all fancy on his part, and not to think any more 
 about it.' But it seems he does, and she is troubled as to 
 whetlier she acted wisely in pressing him to declare himself 
 that she might check him in time, accusing herself of lack of 
 maidenly modesty, &c. How is sha to behave when he returns ? 
 Xow follows a droll question, as an interlude : 
 'I am a young lady 18 years of age, of the middle 
 height, with light brown hair and blue eyes, Avith a bright 
 complexion and good features, of a very lively temper and 
 manner, fond of society, and generally beloved by my 
 companions of my own sex ; but there is one thing that 
 puzzles me, which is, that all the old gentlemen who happen 
 to meet with me take a great fancy for me and pay me great 
 attention, and profess themselves my sincere friends, but the 
 young ones, though very agreeable, do not seem to think 
 of me one moment after they leave my society. Xow, dear 
 Mr. Editor, I should very much like to know the reason of 
 this.' Even thus earh^, correspondents sought his aid in 
 
LONELY BACHELORS. 249 
 
 procuring partners in life ; but lie did not jump at the idea 
 of a matrimonial agency, — lie saw too much unhappiness in 
 the correspondence he received to be anxious to add thereto. 
 
 The writers are generally those who are well-to-do, but 
 ha\'e no entry into societ3\ One who will soon have a 
 £1000 a year, as an engineer, after describing himself, adds — 
 
 ' To cruide you in the work of love — it would be desirable Wanted— 
 
 n wife 
 
 that the lady be of from 17 to 22 years of age, of moderate 
 stature — having a good head of hair, and wearing it plain in 
 front — with or without fortune — one who is musical — fond 
 of flowers — fond of animals, and kind to them — fond of fancy 
 needlework or drawing — fond of our cathedral services — 
 conceiving that one answering these qualifications must be 
 good. To such a one I offer hand, heart, purse, and a life of 
 devotion, with ready obedience to all her desires.' 
 
 Another of the same says — ' I am a naval officer, have wanted— 
 been through all the hardships of the late war, have been^^'^* 
 wounded three times (although, thank God, I am not a 
 cripple) by our enemies' missiles while fighting in the 
 trenches before Sevastopol, where, thanks to you, many a 
 tedious and starvhig hour has been beguiled by perusing 
 the Family Herald. I am five feet ten and a half in 
 height, dark complexion, and although I say it myself, Mr. 
 Editor, I believe Dame ]^ature 'took a Kttle pains when she 
 made me : although I am not handsome in face, yet my figure 
 is good, and I think I should ranlh before a man with a prettij 
 face. By the by, I almost forgot to tell you my age — I am 
 26 years old ; and if you will kindly assist me to get a suitable 
 wife, in fact one who loves a sailor, you will oblige me, who 
 is a constant reader of the /".//., and if I should have one of 
 your choosing ice will teach our little ones to lisp your 
 name, and even consider themselves indebted (for their 
 being) to the Editor of the Familij Herald.^ The above is 
 too ridiculous, and yet its bona fides seems undoubted. 
 
 If those ou the threshold of marriage, or desiring to enter, 
 wrote much to him, those who had already entered poured 
 
250 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 out their complaints in an apparently fairly-balanced propor- 
 tion between the sexes. 
 
 ' Of all the useful domestic receipts in your valuable 
 miscellany I do not find one for the cure of cross husband, 
 and really, Mr. Editor, I have one who will look as black as 
 thunder without any cause in the world — or at most, for 
 some slight neglect or forgetfulness, quite insufficient to pro- 
 voke a reasonable man — but then my husband is not a 
 reasonable man — so do tell me how I can reduce him to that 
 desirable condition, and in return you shall have the lady's 
 best wishes for a perfect wife ! 
 
 While this lady has too much spice in her life, some have 
 too little it seems. 
 
 ' I am a young woman twenty-three years of age, and 
 have been married a twelvemonth — my husband and myself 
 have never c[uarrelled — I have often heard that those who do 
 quarrel sometimes are happier when they make it up. I do 
 not mean to say that I am unhappy, but still I could be 
 happier. Xow do, dear Mr. Editor, give me your advice — if 
 I ever wish to have words with my husband, it's no use for 
 me to think of such a thing, for he will not quarrel with me 
 — but directly he sees me anyway out of temper he leaves me, 
 and does not see me again until he thinks I have recovered 
 my good-temper. My friends tell me I have a very provok- 
 ing husband, and that if we were to fall out sometimes we 
 should be happier together.' 
 
 A sad story of domestic happiness ruined by a mother-in- 
 law, who eventually drives the poor wife from her home, is 
 too long to give. But as we gave a woman's plaint last, we 
 will give a male creature's wail now : — 
 
 • I am a married man, and have a nice little wife — a 
 perfect pattern for neatness, cleanliness, and " arrangement," 
 — in fact, a domestic ornament of her little suburban villa, 
 which is a miniature palace. " What a happy little man (I 
 am a little man) you must be ! " I hear you exclaim. Alas, 
 no! my wife is jealous! Jealous? Aye, there's the rub ! 
 
LOVE — OR PLATONIC AFFECTION? 251 
 
 So long as I and my lady can play Darby and Joan to- 
 gether, and never admit a single visitor during summer and 
 winter, we continue to jog along tolerably smooth. But 
 should any female acquaintance drop in 2^<^'^^ hazard , or should 
 we chance to meet such in our walks (for we do occasionally 
 walk out together), then there is fuel enough supplied for a 
 blazing fire, which is rarely extinguished in less than a fort- 
 night, only to be again speedily rekindled. I have briefly 
 summed up my case — one, perhaps, of many thousand other 
 similar cases ! I will only add that I have been married six- 
 teen years, and that, although I am a man of a remarkably 
 mild and peaceable disposition, a pretty life I have had of 
 it!' 
 
 After bundles of such, how could the Editor reply to the 
 following intelligent epistle — ' From your humble servant in 
 the kitchen.' ' Will you have the kindness to inform me 
 your opinion concerning married ladies and gentlemen, 
 whether they love one another as much when they are not 
 tormented with any of those plaguing things denominated 
 children, — or does that increase their love 1 I have been 
 told that it does, but I cannot see what difference it can 
 make. I have a brother and sister married, neither have 
 any family, and yet they live to all appearance very devoted 
 to their respected spouses. Xow do you think that it is 
 nothing more than a platonic afl"ection that these seemingly 
 loving couples entertain for each other 1 Do you think that 
 a married life without children is consistent with a true, 
 devoted, and passionate love? My above-mentioned 
 relatives appear to have such a love, and yet I doubt the 
 reality of it : you will think me incredulous perhaps, but 
 married life is often so deceitful in appearances that I 
 cannot help doubting, it seems so charming and happy to 
 the eye of the Avorld, where perhaps in reality it is hatred and 
 disgust. I am shortly to be married myself, and I have a 
 very great dread lest the partner I have chosen for life 
 should not always entertain as warm an afl'ection for me as 
 
252 SHEPHEKD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 at present. I fear that married people after a few years 
 cease to love each other, and become tired of one another : if 
 such is the case, I would rather resign myself to a life of 
 celibacy than to live unloved and uncared for, or unloving 
 and uncaring, and with a vacant heart, pursuing the dreary 
 routine of life. The only way to give such a life a zest would 
 be reading the Family Herald, that charming, spell-binding, 
 time-stealing periodical, and writing to its ever obliging and 
 fascinating Editor. Since you pretend to know so well to 
 which sex your correspondents belong by their handwriting, 
 I should very much like to exercise your judgment in this 
 instance — to which do I belong, to the hard or the soft ? * 
 Although on the whole the letters to the Editor are full of 
 the tragedy of life, there are occasional gleams of fun, as 
 
 when ]\Iary B asks the Editor to kindly say ' how many 
 
 cows' tails will reach the moon, supposing each tail to be 
 
 three feet in length 1 ' or when ' Clara' asks his opinion on 
 
 Wiiukies on the foUowin"; — ' Havincj a "reat attachment to a younf^j man, 
 
 brow. ° . . J o > 
 
 I am annoyed by three wrinkles on his brow, which appear at 
 every slight movement of the face. He says it betokens 
 intellect, and is a musical index to the mind, as well also 
 noble and prepossessing.' Poor Clara is not one of the strong- 
 minded ; but such there are however : 
 
 * Your correspondent " Jane Annie" need not fear that she 
 will be like no one else if she persevere in the discontinuance 
 stays, 1840. of stays, for I have long since discontinued them, and I 
 think it will be a long time before I take to them again. I 
 have been obliged to dispense with peaks to my dresses, as I 
 could not make them sit straight — every time I moved they 
 rose up into frightful wrinkles, and now I wear round 
 waists, with a band and buckle.' 
 
 'Annie' writes from Peckham in 1856 — 'For several 
 years have been anxious that some method should be 
 adopted to prevent the ill effects of the dead upon the living. 
 When Lord Palmerston ordered the graveyards to be closed 
 I hoped it would answer the purpose, but I found by the 
 
UTILITARIAN FEMALE. 253 
 
 papers that it is not so, and that many parishes suffer 
 dreadfully, ^yhy should there not be a law to oblige cremation 
 people to burn their dead, and put their ashes in urns, as in 
 ancient times? Or if the people object to that, why not 
 oblige them to put quicklime in every coffin, or any other 
 means that would quickly destroy the body ? Surely they 
 must be ignorant and selfish who would wish the living to 
 su£fer merely that their bodies might remain a little longer 
 unconsumed in the ground. And would it not be good to 
 cover all the graveyards with quicklime or bruised char- 
 coal?' 
 
 Another female protests against valentines ! ' Gertrude 
 Louie thinks it most wicked to spend money on a rubbishing 
 sheet of poetry, which is no more valued by the receiver than viicntines. 
 the party who sends.' A^trifling present with a motto or a few 
 lines in the writing of any individual who wishes to make 
 use of the time allotted to timorous swains, would, in 
 Gertrude Louie's opinion, be far preferable. They are not 
 treasured, but sent off to some one else, she declares. 
 
 Scotland was not alone in her stern view of the Sunday 
 in those days, for even in 185G a Northumbrian writes 
 complaining of being remonstrated with for reading tlie 
 Family Herald on Sunday, and asking if he really breaks 
 the fourth commandment by so doing 1 This from Newcastle, 
 too ! 
 
 On the Tenqoerance question numerous correspondents 
 consider he is ' no soond.' 
 
 ' I have read nearly every line of your Herald for years, 
 and you are my heau ideal of concise reasoning and essay- 
 writing, but on this Temperance subject you are to me painful, 
 not that you differ from me, but that you should commit so 
 great and plentiful blunders on a subject so generally under- 
 stood by the lowest operatives in the kingdom. I am not 
 in a position to send you a quantity of books on this subject 
 with the hope of a chance of your reading a line or two, 
 but there are two I sliould be deHghted to send you if I 
 
254 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 knew you would read them — " The Alliance Prize Essay*' 
 and " Physiology of Intemperance." Say you will, and add 
 another pleasure to your warm admirer and useM recom- 
 mender or canvasser.' 
 
 One lady is anxious and persistent as to style: 
 
 ' May I trouble you a little further. I do not quite under- 
 stand. You say it may be cultivated, but I hardly know 
 iL'hat to strive for. Will the doing everything with as much 
 grace as possible give it. It seems to me that quiets gentle 
 women seldom have as much style as the more forward ones. 
 I hope you will set me right in my ideas. Is it possible for 
 a gentle, quiet-mannered girl to acquire as much style as 
 others ? It seems to me to be one of the most desirable 
 externals a woman can possess. The want of it is severely 
 noticed by men ; this I know from remarks I have heard 
 passed. The aristocracy have usually a great deal of style : 
 why should they have it more than other people, unless it is 
 that they pay more attention to the subject. I fancy style 
 partly consists in moving gracefully, without the least 
 stiffness; but I don't know, as I before said, what to strive 
 for, and I long to be set right in my ideas on the subject. I 
 wish there were teachers of style just as there are teachers 
 of drawing and music. I have a notion that I should now 
 acquire it if some one would just put me in the way of it.' 
 
 Romances are plentiful amongst the correspondence, but 
 generally too long to quote. The following is a short 
 example : — 
 
 ' When I first became conscious of existence I found my- 
 self in a boarding-school at Hammersmith. My school- 
 fellows were the sons of persons moving in spheres of life 
 one or two steps only below the highest. I remained, 
 vacation and all, at this school until I was 13 years old, and 
 during this period I was accustomed to write to a gentleman 
 in the country, whom I had been taught to address as " My 
 dear Guardian." When I left school I was entered as a 
 midshipman in the Royal Xavy, and until I ^vent on board 
 
A SKELETON PLOT. 255 
 
 I resided in the house of Captain, now Admiral Sir H. 
 
 P , G.C.B. "While I was a midshipman my allowance 
 
 from my guardian was much beyond what is usual ; and when 
 I became mate, my outfits and other expenses were met by 
 cheques which I drew upon Messrs. R. & Co., London — 
 amounting in some instances to £400 or £500, which were 
 always honoured. AVhen on shore, in England, I stayed at 
 the house of my guardian, and visited, upon equal terms, the 
 neighbouring gentry, among the rest Mr. now General P. 
 Always receiving whatever money I wanted, and being 
 chiefly afloat, I never troubled myself to enquire who I was, 
 fully believing my guardian would in due time make to me 
 the necessary disclosures. About five years ago he died, as it 
 is said, intestate, without informing me further respecting 
 my parentage. His two sisters, one unmarried, the other 
 long a widow, without children, now inherit the property. 
 I have written to them, but they refuse to afford me the 
 smallest clue to my parentage ; yet not twelve months ago they 
 remitted me £300, and six months ago £70. K'ow they 
 refuse to remit, ivithout assigning any reason. A short time 
 ago a lady, the daughter of a person who knew me and all 
 the parties concerned, wrote to me of her own accord, stating 
 that her father, on his deathbed, had begged her to 
 communicate to me his dying testimony, which was to the 
 effect that " the property now held by the two sisters belonged 
 to me." ' 
 
 A descendant of John of Ghent and the De Mont- 
 morencys tells a long and sad story of devotion on her 
 part, and cruel treatment on the part of her wealthy 
 relatives, more especially a rich sister, who leaves her to 
 struggle to support her aged father and sick brother. She 
 asks a question which we fear could not then be answered 
 satisfactorily, but which happily is not so hopeless to-day. 
 ' Can you tell me if there is any institution, society, or 
 company of good charitable people in London, England, or 
 elsewhere, who would be likely to purchase from me a 
 
256 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 quantity of pretty, useful (and many of them very elegant) 
 dresses, pinafores, Llouses, &c. &c. for children ? They are of 
 all sizes and materials, and everybody who has seen them 
 declares that nothing can be neater or better than the work 
 and style.' She explains they are all 'the produce of my 
 own hard labour,' and continues — ' As I have mentioned 
 that I have many relations in the higher ranks of life, it 
 might occur to you, Sir, that I ought to apply to them for 
 advice and assistance. First remember how few there are 
 among the great who like to be chmned, or reminded of 
 their poor, reduced relations ! Both my father's and mother's 
 friends have often been very kind and generous to them, and 
 they exerted themselves to procure military and foreign 
 a^Dpointments for my numerous brothers, and continually 
 pushed them on in their professions by their interest. This 
 is quite as much as poor people can expect from their noble 
 kinsfolk. Moreover, since my sister's wealthy marriage our 
 friends take it for granted that she is kind to, and careful 
 of, her father and poorer sister.' 
 
 Xo wonder, with such letters in crowds, the Editor holds 
 it is neither law nor gospel, but human nature that requires 
 amendment, and the gospel of universal charity for this 
 world and the next the only living principle. 
 
 A well written, badly spelled letter, received just at the 
 time of his death in 1857, would have pained him deeply; 
 and as it gives a curious insight into local social conditions 
 from one j^oint of view, may be even now of public utility as 
 well as of historical interest. 
 Morality of ' I was at a lecture a short time since on the town and 
 vnuige. neighbourhood in which I reside. It was very interesting 
 and instructive, but in speaking on the morality of our village 
 I doubt the correctness of this assertion. He said, using 
 his own words — Perhaps those whose judgment has been 
 misled by a zeal without due knowledge upon the subject of 
 the cotton-factory system, and whose minds have been pre- 
 judiced against it by false reports, would be startled at the 
 
FACTORY IMMORALITY. 257 
 
 assertion, now made, that the moral conduct of the population 
 in a well-conducted factory district like this, is of a higher 
 standard than that of the agricultural labourers, and others 
 less favoured with constant emj^loyment, and the consequent 
 comfort of a plentiful home. Xow, that you may form an 
 idea of the morality of our village, I will give you a few facts. 
 It is a large manufacturing village, containing in 1851 up- 
 wards of 10,000 inhabitants; it has three magistrates ; two 
 have a number of illegitimate children, the other has not, but 
 cohabits with several women. Two attorneys, one with a 
 number of illegitimate children, the other is more moral. 
 There are ten cotton mills ; seven of the masters have illegi- 
 timate children, or are in the habit of having dishonourable 
 connection with some of the females under their employ. 
 Thus you see the wanton, licentious, and dissolute habits of our 
 leading men. These corrupt and loose habits diffuse them- 
 selves through almost every grade of society in our village. 
 It is no uncommon occurrence for men and women to be liv- 
 ing together unmarried, in a state of adultery. Again he 
 asserts, in his own words — ' The factory system, like any other 
 which by its regularity keeps the people out of the way of 
 temptation and opportunity to sin, has great advantages in 
 preserving them from evil habits.' The factory system is one in 
 which men, women, and children are all employed in one room 
 together, where all sorts of language is used in the hearing 
 of the children, which they soon learn to use if they did not 
 know before, and they soon carry it to their associates ; and 
 this is one way, but not the worst, in which bad morals begin 
 to be diffused ; but the worst feature I believe is in men's 
 wages being so little that they are not able to keep their 
 wives at home to look after the family duties, hence it 
 devolves upon one woman to cook for several families, or 
 perhaps, where there are several children, they will get some 
 old woman, that has nothing to rely upon, and got too old to 
 get a living in factory, to keep house for them, or, which is not 
 unfrequently the case, that the oldest child has to do the 
 
258 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSAtlST. 
 
 duties of housekeeper in absence of their mother, which are 
 but very imperfectly performed ; and this home, that ought 
 to be a place of rest and quietness, is rendered a place of 
 turmoil and labour after the work at the factory is over : 
 this in a great many instances drives the husband to the 
 public-house, instead of attending to the more important 
 duty of training his children. Again he says — 'The work 
 required is not laborious, employment is regular, every one is 
 duly paid what he earns, in the current coin, with the utmost 
 punctuality.' The work perhaps is not of that heavy 
 description that the agricultural labourer has to do, but the 
 factory operative has a certain quantity of work to perform, 
 or they must give up their place (though they are only paid 
 according to the work done) ; the work required is so much 
 that it is impossible to do it without using every exertion 
 they can, from the time they go into the mill to the time they 
 come out, and this very often in an ill-ventilated room, 
 where men have to strip themselves to shirt and drawers, 
 sweating all the day to such a degree that no one would 
 believe except they saw. The masters also require it to be 
 done well : if not done according as they require, they take a 
 portion off the wages that ought to be paid for it, no matter 
 whether the material that they give you to make of be good 
 or not. I know that the operatives are frequently told, when 
 remonstrating over the work being bad when their wages 
 have been taken, that they must produce good work what- 
 ever kind of material they had to make it from, and they are 
 not unfrequently at the end of the week with a shilling or 
 two less than they have earned, and in a many instances for 
 things that the master knows as well as them that it is 
 impossible for them to avoid. When we see such a system 
 of defraud carried on by the higher classes, what is too bad 
 to expect from the lower ? Yet they say they are compelled, 
 else they would not be able to carry on ; yet they are riding 
 in their carriages in princely splendour, and building ware- 
 houses and factories like palaces, to outward appearances^ 
 
CIVILISATION A FARCE. 259 
 
 than places to hold the result of the labour of a degraded and 
 overworked population, which are in a many instances less 
 thought of and cared for than the slaves in South America 
 by their employers. If the population of the agricultural 
 districts are more degraded and immoral than in ours, then 
 England must he in a deplorable condition, and our boasted 
 civilisation a farce. 
 
 It is to be feared that the conjunction of great wealth 
 with great poverty, whether agricultural or industrial, means 
 invariably an unwholesome and immoral social system, such 
 as James Smith ever fought strenuously to remove. 
 
CHAPTER XYIII. 
 
 THE ' FAMILY HERALD CONTINUED. 
 
 In tliis year (1850), in the full maturity of his intellect, 
 James Smith returns to the love of his early manhood, and 
 gives us an essay on ' Analogy ; or, the Universal Science.' 
 It is learned, wise, interesting, and suggestive ; but no ordi- 
 1850^"°^ nary public could have read it had they not been educated 
 up to his peculiar standpoint. He concludes thus : — ' The 
 great difficulty of analogical reasoning lies in the reversal of 
 the poles. Thus every male has a female character, and 
 every female a male character ; every good has its evil aspect, 
 and every evil its good aspect. The spirit of man is feminine, 
 the s[)irit of woman masculine. Any attempt to reason well 
 analogically without knowing this will fail ; and it forms 
 such a very great difficulty, even Avhen known, that we 
 regard it as the pons ashiorum of the science.' 
 
 Reichenbach's discoveries, once so startling, and now 
 almost forgotten, provide an admirable anti-materialistic 
 subject of illustration, and enables the * spiritualistic side of 
 materialism,' as we may call it, to be introduced to his 
 public. Every subject only became grist, however, to his 
 moral mill. He had the one standard by which to measure 
 everything, as indeed he was bound to do under his system 
 of Universal Analogy. It is thus that, although looking 
 upon Shakespeare as a poet of genius, he attacks ' Shake- 
 spearian Idolatry.' It is not so much therefore as a literary 
 critic, but as a moralist, that he views our great dramatist. 
 This premised, we can scarcely object to much of his criti- 
 cism, 'Shakespeare has genius without elevation. He is 
 the idol of the wag, the droll, the buffpon, the wit, the 
 
DEPRAVITY OF OTHELLO. 261 
 
 humourist, the passional poet, and rhetorician. The age 
 that elevated him is such an age, and the people that wor- 
 ship him are such a people. Great as England is, and 
 greater as she thinks herself, she never soars aloft, but 
 
 always contents herself with a middle flight It 
 
 was not he that succeeded, it was the age And 
 
 yet the national drama will never be reformed and regene- 
 rated until the name of Shakespeare be eclipsed by a greater 
 and purer. Shakespeare's name is up, but his plays are not 
 suited to the present feelings of society. "We frankly con- 
 fess that in general they are too much for our feelings. We 
 have never witnessed Othello without the strongest abhor- 
 rence. There is 7iot a heaiitiful moral character in the inece. 
 Even Desdemona's taste is a moral weakness that we cannot 
 excuse, and the whole piece is a picture of disgusting human 
 depravity. The talent is great that worked up the tragedy ; 
 but what of that % It is not sacred — it is not morally beau- 
 tiful.' Here follows a bit of biography : — * Last time we 
 saw the play performed was at Drury Lane a year ago, and 
 we took two little girls from two separate families along 
 with us. We reproached ourselves during the performance 
 for so doing. We felt uncomfortable, and so did they. We 
 went on purpose to see Laura Addison's natural and impul- 
 sive style of performance, without even knowing what piece 
 was announced. But we have no desire ever to see the play 
 performed again. We cannot even read it without repug- 
 nance. There are thousands multiplied by thousands that 
 feel as we do. Such plays are not adapted for an age of 
 
 refinement And therefore, in our opinion, what 
 
 is called the decline of the drama is one of the hopeful signs 
 
 of the times,' &c. The Theatrical Journal naturally took 
 
 up the cudgels : — ' A silly article has lately appeared in the i-^ti^Auj 
 
 Famihj Herald, a penny publication which circulates widely 
 
 amongst the middle classes, the object of which appears to 
 
 be to remove what the writer conceives a prejudice in favour 
 
 of Shakespeare. , We happen to know that the person who 
 
 1850. 
 
262 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 has written the matter in question is a man of ability ; 
 otherwise we must have ascribed the article to ignorance and . 
 
 incapacity We concede that Shakespeare is often 
 
 gross, we confess we have no sympathy with INlilton's 
 theology ; but they are the two greatest poets of England, 
 and when a greater shall arise we shall be glad indeed. 
 With regard to the asserted indifference of Shake- 
 speare to religion, it is perfectly true that he is not sufficiently 
 affirmative. But men who think are continually beset with 
 doubts; and probably the mind of Shakespeare vacillated 
 
 frequently But the true and earnest man will 
 
 always arrive at faith in the end.' The article is a moderate 
 one, and signed ' B. W.' The best answer to the essay, 
 however, is James Smith's own conduct in freely quoting 
 from Shakespeare at all times, no doubt for the same reason 
 as others, because the universal genius of the dramatist best 
 expressed his thoughts. 
 
 28tii Sept. ' The House that Jack Built ' is a remarkable essay, that 
 has provoked many similar efforts. It is impossible to sum- 
 marise it. But it is most stimulative of thought : — ' The 
 nursery rhymes are many of them juvenile revelations — 
 oracular traditions — whose origin is lost in the mazes of 
 antiquity, but whose words are preserved in the fond 
 reminiscences of youth, as the si^here of the greatest univer- 
 sality We suspect that men will have to learn 
 
 their nursery rhymes again. They have learned the words 
 — the dead letter — they must now learn the meaning. It is 
 
 high time they must become as little children 
 
 before they enter the kingdom of the just, and little children 
 all learn the nursery rhymes.' This last is a peculiarly 
 characteristic touch ! 
 
 19th Oct. In ' The Spirit of Condemnation ; or, Incipient Insanity,' 
 
 we find : — ' Faith will often lead to insanity, because faith is 
 not necessarily pure ; ' here examples of the ' madness ' of 
 faith follow. ' Charity never was guilty of anything of the 
 sort. Charity is calm, mild, reasonable, and incapable of 
 
 1850. 
 
ROME AND LONDON. 263 
 
 any outrage or excess whatsoever.' 'Charity is soundness 
 of mind, and the cultivation of charity is mental and intel- 
 lectual cultivation. It is both the preventive and the cure 
 of madness.' In this spirit ' We hail vegetarianism as we oth Nov. 
 hailed homoeopathy as one of the speaking signs of the times 
 — heralds of a coming era ; and we have little doubt that 
 the tender spirit which prevails in it will ultimately succeed 
 in its aspirations.' The same tone is markedly visible in 
 
 'Great Men: their Dark and Light Sides.' 'It is 
 
 the law of our planet, which is ever day on one side and 
 night on the other. Why, then, should we hesitate to show 
 the dark side of even our favourites 1 The truth of the soth Nov. 
 portrait would disarm opposition and tend to promote the 
 reconciliation of parties, who have all been fighting for ages 
 like the two knights before the statue, which was black on 
 the one side and white on the other. They did not discern 
 their mutual mistake till they had disabled each other.' 
 
 A series of essays on the ' Little Known World ' deals with 
 Eastern manners and knowledge in the most liberal and 
 ' Catholic ' spirit, and ushers in one on ' The Approaching 3rd May 
 Festival of all ]^ations,' in the editor's happiest style. It ^^^^' 
 commences with a humorous account of Londoners' expecta- 
 tions — shows that a Roman jubilee brought so many to Rome. 
 Giovanni Yillani says : — ' That not a single day passed in the 
 course of the year that there were not in Rome, besides its 
 inhabitants, 200,000 pilgrims.' We have no zeal to draw 
 upon like a Pope's indulgence ; and he asks, pertinently, 
 Will more than a hundred or two come from all Asia, and 
 how many of Russia's 60,000,000 serfs will come? The 
 number, ' supposing it to be even 200,000, will be distributed 
 over six months, and therefore scarcely sufficient to ensure 
 good houses for the season to theatrical managers, or to fill 
 the new foreign and unconsecrated chapels of the Bishop of 
 London.' This is a neat hit, and enables him to note : — 
 ' So English-Catholic is the English Church, that its service 
 must not be read in any other language but English in a 
 
264 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERS ALIST. 
 
 consecrated clinrcli ; ' hence, personally, the absurdity to look 
 upon it as Catholic or Universal. Then * it is a palace of 
 facts — a fact-totum palace — that is all.' That is no doubt 
 something : — ' But unless you can deduce a great moral from 
 your palace of facts — unless it embrace a moral, or a series of 
 morals — unless there be hope in it for the poor man, as well 
 as entertainment for the rich, if it have no ten- 
 dency to moral improvement, it is to us, and to all but the 
 prize-gainers, nothing but vanity.' He holds that all our 
 Avealth and luxury has done nothing to mitigate the poverty, 
 the filth, the misery of London. The Crystal Palace won't 
 help the problem. ' It is merely a bazaar.' He will not even 
 accept its jpromotion of international friendship and removal 
 of international prejudices. ' Commerce is essentially a com- 
 bative principle,' and has its own prejudices and antipathies. 
 Yet the Palace is a sign of the times: — 'The expression of 
 
 an idea of international communion and friendship 
 
 Such utterances, on so large a scale, are voices of no common 
 import ; they are voices from Heaven, which all men hear 
 and all men understand, for they speak the language of all 
 nations.' So that, in itself material, something moral may 
 yet spring from it as a result. He will persist in being the 
 death's-head at the feast, or at least maintaining a righteous 
 standard, flying above the self-satisfied material standard of 
 common-place expediency. Yet why should the moral 
 twaddle of Martin F. Tupper — in his ode, * England's Wel- 
 come to the World' — follow, and rouse our mental antagonism ? 
 Perhaps ' Hatred : its Mission as a INIoral Principle ' will 
 
 til June explain: — 'When we all hate the same evils, they will fly 
 before us ; but when one loves one evil and another hates it, 
 the world will wag on as heretofore — a scene of conflicting 
 elements.' And the world of self-complacent England loved 
 — or thought it proper to love — the moral twaddle of 
 Tupper. 
 
 2nth Sept. Under ' Right and Wrong : Is there a Standard of Recti- 
 
 tude ? ' there is a merciless criticism of JSTewman : — ' This 
 
 1851 
 
NEWMAN A CONJUROR. 265 
 
 man's ideas of right and ■v\Tong remind us of those of a 
 conjuror, who, if he omit one word, letter, or sign of the 
 mysterious incantation, destroys the spell, and the spirits 
 refuse to come.' Smith is not under the glamour of XeAv- 
 man's name, like the multitude who joined in his sanctifica- 
 tion at his death. He examines him in the light of his own 
 Catliolic doctrine, especially his 'Difficulties of Anglicanism' 
 — intended to puzzle the English. 'With him it matters not 
 what a Catholic does ; it is always better of its kind than 
 what is done by a Protestant. If he swears, it is better 
 swearing ; if he swears falsely, it is for a better purpose ; if 
 he riots in drunkenness or debauchery of any kind, the 
 element of faith in the invisible world is always preserved in 
 
 it He has laughed at priests, and formed rash 
 
 judgments of them, and slandered them to others ; but not 
 as doubting the divinity of their functions and the virtue of 
 their ministration, &c. So that when the news comes to 
 him that he is to die, and he cannot get a priest, and the 
 ray of God's grace pierces his heart, and he yearns after 
 him whom he has neglected, it is with no inarticulate, con- 
 fused emotion, which does but oppress him, and which has 
 no means of relief. His thoughts at once take shape and 
 order; they mount up, each in its due place, to the great 
 objects of faith, which are as surely in his mind as they are 
 in heaven.' So far j^ewman; then follows the comparison 
 with the Protestant sinner, with the observation, ' How 
 different is it with the Catholic ! ' ' And,' adds Smith, ' how 
 different is the hobby of a priest from that of a layman, and 
 the hobby of a sectarian from that of true charity ! The 
 man who sees himself and party right, and all other men 
 wrong, only worships himself ; and in worshipping himself 
 he blinds himself to every light that exposes a feebleness in 
 
 his cause Father Newman's reasoning is excellent 
 
 for Thugs and all the Oriental tribes of devotees. They also 
 know what to do. They also have the holy images in the 
 places of sin Kcwman's description of his own 
 
1st Nov, 
 I80I. 
 
 2G6 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERS ALIST. 
 
 religion parallels precisely with that of Paganism.' With all 
 his learning, Newman was a sectarian bigot, and could have 
 no interest for Smith except as a study. 
 
 In ' Sorrow: what is the use of it?' while appreciating the 
 value of sorrow, he shows he is no ascetic : — ' Even sorrow 
 itself goes in search of joy, the standard of existence which 
 alone hath the open countenance that constitutes the symbol 
 of life and immortality.' 
 
 The manner in which the ' progressive woman ' of that day 
 sought ' joy ' is here shown in two portraits of Mrs. Bloomer, 
 from a daguerrotype, with an appreciative article from the 
 Medical Times. If severe upon dogmatic Catholicism, he 
 did not spare Protestantism. ' Scotland and the Scotch ' — 
 he has been revisiting the home of his youth at this time — 
 8th Nov, calls forth a severe criticism upon his countrymen : — ' The 
 signs of Antichrist are distributed amongst the Churches. 
 Rome has some of them, England has others, and Scotland 
 
 others Scotland is perhaps the most religious 
 
 country in the world The religious excitement is 
 
 very great But this religion is evidently not the 
 
 religion of charity, but only of faith. Charity there is none. 
 
 The modern revival of * superstition ' does not disturb him. 
 * It is one of the great characteristics of humanity. l!^o beast, 
 
 bird, or fish is superstitious Moreover, all great 
 
 minds, all poetical, imaginative, and world-governing minds, 
 are imbued with feelings akin to the superstitious.' He 
 wishes to know what alarmists are afraid of: — 'Would it 
 not be very pleasant to enter into social correspondence with 
 
 all the dead ? Would it not even destroy death ? 
 
 And if it be all a delusion, what is there to fear?' This 
 spiritual courage, if we may so call it, is the special character- 
 istic of James Smith's mind. He looks all difficulties boldly 
 in the face, and seeks not to delude himself or others. In 
 17th Apr. the same spirit he treats of ' drunkenness,' ' the vice of all 
 ages.' He does not lose his head over the subject, or expect 
 
THE DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER. 267 
 
 salvation through coffee-houses. ' All men may rise 
 
 to moral respectability and personal and domestic comfort ; 
 and it is quite as possible to accomplish this end by sociality 
 
 as by solitary reading and hobby-riding The evil 
 
 of public-house clubs is that they lead to drinking ; but then 
 the coffee-room or reading-room is not in all cases a satis- 
 factory substitute for the public-house. The character of the 
 public-house is conversational, and there is no real equivalent 
 for it in this respect in society.' 
 
 "What an antiquated look the title of this essay has : — 
 * Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister.' The whole story gth May 
 is rationally discussed here by a Biblical scholar, who is yet ^^^^• 
 not bound by the letter of the Bible : — ' Even the law of 
 Moses does not forbid marriage with a deceased wife's sister. 
 
 A woman married two brothers, but the blood 
 
 relationship was the same in both, and the second husband 
 was no nearer akin than the first.' According to circum- 
 stances, such as children, it was inexpedient, and not enjoined 
 for the brother to marry his brother's widow ; but it is ' not 
 a divine law, but a law of expediency, to be finally settled by 
 
 public opinion The question is at present before 
 
 the public, and we hope that the blot on our 
 
 statute-book, which since 1835 has forbidden such marriages, 
 will ere long be removed. It is quite impossible that the 
 law can stand, for it is already condemned by the feelings of 
 mankind. All nations and all religions approve of such 
 
 marriages There is evidently no prohibition of 
 
 such marriages to be found in the Bible What 
 
 plausible pretext is now left for the law of 1835 V 
 
 In two considerate papers on ' Juvenile Delinquency ' the 
 question is fairly stated : — ' A jail is merely a place of 
 punishment, or, as Mary Carpenter says, " an infirmary in 
 which all diseases are treated alike ; " and when the term has 
 expired, the little culprits all come out transformed, not into 
 well-doing boys, but into jail-birds. They have now taken 
 their first degree, and are criminals by profession. The 
 
268 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERS ALIST. 
 
 other degrees follow in their course.' Elsewhere we find : — 
 * Sir Robert Peel used to say that the protection of property- 
 was the principal object of government — a most infamous 
 principle, in the rcxalisation of which a boy is imprisoned or 
 transported for stealing a bit of bread, and the gentleman is 
 fined 10s., <£1, or at most £5 for disgracefully insulting a 
 young woman in the street. But the result of the whole, the 
 
 sum-total of our policy, is seen in the fact that the 
 
 poor of the United Kingdom of England, Ireland, and 
 Scotland are the most deplorable creatures in Christian 
 civilisation, the wonder of foreigners, and the shame of 
 Englishmen.' 
 
 Such essays as that on ' Graphiology ; or the Art of deter- 
 mining Character by Handwriting,' always supplies plentiful 
 illustrations, and little experiences. 'Phrenology tells you 
 vaguely the capabilities of a man — physiognomy, also 
 
 vaguely, the use he had made of these capabilities 
 
 We see no more difficulty in graphiology, and we 
 
 have little doubt that in innumerable instances the character 
 is read with equal precision. The foot, moreover, would 
 tell the character as well as the head or the hand. Lady 
 Hester Stanhope used to study the feet in a particular 
 manner.' It could scarcely be expected that one who 
 was essentially an artist could feel any great regard for 
 ' Quakerism ; or. Simplicity in Dress and Manners.' He 
 alludes to their lack of pleasurable excitement and consequent 
 atrophy, and quotes the statement that one-half of them die 
 of stupidity, actually and literally, from want of exercise 
 and nervous excitement. ' Quakerism has borne a valuable 
 testimony against the vices and corruptions of society, and 
 borne it also with a martyr spirit ; but this is the utmost 
 stretch of its commission.' 
 
 This ' stupidity ' from want of nervous excitement apjDealed 
 to Smith ! He did not believe in 'juvenile precocity.' 
 Jack and the Bean Stalk had far more truth in it to children 
 than the Antipodes, and it was 'infinitely more attractive 
 
mechanics' institutes. 269 
 
 and instructive. There is heart in it There are 
 
 interest, feeling, sympathy, fear, and intense excitement; all 
 
 calculated to awake and develop the moral character 
 
 Remember that hasty growths are weakening to plants and 
 animals, and the strongest and the most enduring are always 
 those who slowly develop themselves. Even the superior 
 strength of man to woman is, doubtless, owing to his later 
 
 efflorescence The time for supply is the time of 
 
 demand. It is injudicious to anticipate the demand by 
 urging the supply on an imwilling mind.' Humanity, 
 indeed, was to him a much larger and more important 
 subject than intellect pure and simple. 
 
 This is apparent in the subjects he chooses for his essays. 
 He is full of the poetry of history. The other day the Jews 
 appealed to Lord Salisbury to intercede with the Turk for 
 them to find a place in Palestine. This, too, is an old 
 story ! ' Jews and Greeks — their probable Restoration ' tells 30th Apr. 
 of an association in London to promote the colonisation of 
 Palestine by agricultural Jews : — ' Of all the natives of the 
 world, the Jews and the Greeks have done the most for 
 civilisation. They gave it birth ; they are its two parents — 
 its father and its mother. The soul of civilisation, at least, 
 is derived from them. Religion on the one hand, and 
 literature on the other, still look back to these two sacred 
 fountains of thought with the reverence of posterity to 
 ancestral greatness It is a singular and a memo- 
 rable fact that both Jews and Greeks, those two desolated 
 and yet preserved parents of civilisation, are now actively 
 bent on the renewal of their strength, and the restoration of 
 their nationality, by means of the leading spirit of the times 
 — the spirit of commerce and finance.' Hebraist and Grecian 
 as he is, he turns fondly to the founts of his own early in- 
 spiration. It will interest some to learn that ' Mechanics' 
 Institutions may be said to have derived their birth from 
 Scotland, in the Andersonian Institution in Glasgow. Dr 
 Birkbeck, Professor of that institution, in the beginning of 
 
 1853. 
 
270 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERS ALIST. 
 
 tlie present century, proposed to the trustees to give lectures 
 to mechanics on Natural Philosophy. He was laughed at, 
 of course, but he persisted. His first lecture was attended 
 by 75 workmen, and the fourth by 500. At the end of 
 the course they presented the Doctor with a handsome 
 silver cup. From that moment the cause of popular 
 scientific education prospered, but it was not till twenty 
 years afterwards — in 1823 — that Dr Birkbeck, who re- 
 moved to London in 1804, succeeded in commencing the 
 movement which has at length established Mechanics' 
 Institutions all over the country.' 
 
 ]SIr J. C. Eobertson, the editor of Mechanics^ Magaziney 
 devised them. But he objects to the name as narrow and 
 sectarian, and they are destitute of the prudence in manage- 
 ment ' which arises from the antagonism of classes !' While 
 by no means averse to even a medical faculty of women, 
 the editor would give little regard to the would-be masculine 
 woman of the present day, seeking to ape their rude brothers 
 
 1853 ^^^^ ^^^ show their independence : — ' The elevation of woman, 
 therefore, so much discoursed of in modern times, and for 
 the promotion of which a league has been formed in the 
 great metropolis, can only be effected by first discovering and 
 then by cultivating the real feminine sphere of industry 
 ordained by Nature. Woman can never be elevated by 
 becoming more masculine, nor man by becoming more 
 feminine. The tendency of civilisation is rather to increase 
 than diminish the difference of sex, and the perfect happi- 
 ness of society coincides with the perfect separation of male 
 and female employments. This entire separation will make 
 woman more womanly, and man more manly ; and not only 
 endear one sex more to the other, but make them essen- 
 tially indispensable, in all the relationships of life, to each 
 other's happiness.' How otherwise, unless woman were 
 ' more womanly,' could he look to them for aid, as he always 
 did, in the cause of moral reform 1 
 
 9th July 'Arbitrary Eewards of Labour' supplies a number of 
 
THE MOVING POWER OF NATURE. 271 
 
 instances of the treatment of the clergy of all denominations, 
 that may well be historical some day. Xo wonder he asks : 
 
 * Was ever any man rewarded for labour 1 Reward 
 
 is a nickname — there is no such thing in the world. Ko 
 man is, or ever can be, rewarded by another. At the best, 
 he makes only a bargain with him.' 
 
 Great ingenuity is exercised in always returning to this 
 moral centre of his system. In an able resume of 'The 
 Elements of Mature ' he concludes : — * The imponderable 23rd July 
 
 185-3 
 
 elements seem to be a medium between the material or 
 ponderable elements and mind; and thus we rise through 
 a regular scale of being, from the solid metallic bases up 
 through earths, liquids, gases, electrical or imponderable 
 elements, to mind or will, which is the great moving power 
 of Nature, because it is the furthest removed from the solid 
 or material ; for as a fluid is more powerful than a soHd, and 
 a gas is more powerful than a fluid, and as an electrical 
 agent is more powerful than a gas, so it will be more power- 
 ful than an electrical agent, for it subdues and governs all.' 
 
 The editor is a sort of moral crusader throughout, whether 
 it be as regards cruelty to animals or to Christians in 
 Turkey. 
 
 The war that has now begun in the East, known as the isth Mar. 
 Crimean, gives subjects for many philosophical essays ; but 
 he is no Quaker : — ' The world will go on fighting until it 
 can find an arbitrator that will have respect for its manifold 
 wants, and who can reconcile its multifold and apparently 
 contrarious principles.' 
 
 We find in an essay on 'American Liberty' the repre- 
 sentation of minorities advanced : — ' Even the majority 
 system is beginning to find its discontented opponents in 
 the United States, for they find that by it they nullify their 
 own democratical principles; for if the majority alone be 
 represented, then the minority must be unrepresented.' It 
 is a ' grand experiment,' of which the result cannot be fore- 
 seen. Eut experiments were rife at that particular time : — 
 
18.54, 
 
 272 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 •-'7th May ' Where can you find a f^reater collection of scoundrels than 
 
 1 S •■)4 
 
 in London and Paris? and yet, funny to tell, these two 
 cities, with all their hideous exemplifications of the mystery 
 of iniquity, are i")roposing to civilise and regenerate the East ! 
 They cannot do so without introducing their own arts into 
 it ; and there can be little doubt that when the day comes 
 that will see the old Moslem advertising in the Times, and 
 drawing the attention of travellers to his establishment, he 
 will have lost at least one-half of his honesty by civilising it. 
 But we must go on with our civilisation ; there is no retreat. 
 It is better to go out of the bog on the other side than to 
 keep out of it on this.' 
 
 What ' civilisation ' is becoming is instanced in an essay 
 on 'Kailway Life,' and the changes it is producing in 
 character and habits — changes which must have become 
 
 loth June greatly accentuated since that date. His dictum upon the 
 Royal Academy Exhibition comes in not only as a labour of 
 love, but as educational for his readers. Then, as now : 
 ' With few exceptions, the unhonoured, untitled, unknighted, 
 and unspurred are the most attractive in their works.' He 
 alludes to the general complaint that the academicians get 
 the best places : ' Of this no man can reasonably doubt 
 when he sees that they alone have their names in capital 
 letters in the catalogue.' 
 
 There is nothing too simple for him to neglect. The 
 geological islands of the Crystal Palace, with their extinct 
 
 15th July animals, point a moral: — 'When we perceive no other 
 degeneration than that of size, in which there is no beauty or 
 value ; and when, in opposition to that, we see progress in 
 beauty of shape, in intelligence and feeling, we have reason 
 to rejoice for the final destination of the world we live in.' 
 
 One of the most sympathetic essays is upon Ruskin's 
 address to the Working-Men's College. While acknow- 
 
 25tii Nov. ledging its truth, he shows its weakness : — ' The Greek 
 architecture is an inspiration in its own sphere, which is 
 lower than the Sacred or Gothic. IS'o man can write it 
 
 1854, 
 
 1854, 
 
1855. 
 
 CASTE IN THE ARMY. 273 
 
 down. It will crush him if he attempt it; but he may- 
 lower its status, and place it in its proper position.' He does 
 not seem acquainted with the perhaps juster modern view, 
 that Gothic buildings are art, and not architecture, having 
 neither stability nor security ! 
 
 * Health and its Ministers ' deals with Homoeopathy and 27th Jan. 
 Allopathy, with the prejudices and vested interests of the 
 faculty : — ' Some good must come of such controversies, 
 whichever party is right ; and if both are right, the excesses 
 of the one may correct those of the other. Homoeopathy 
 seems to be acting on allopathy like teetotalism on dram- 
 drinking, moderating and diminishing its unlawful potations ; 
 and even those who ridicule and condemn it are unconsciously 
 affected by its powerful remonstrances and well-justified 
 protests against the chemical druggery of the age and the 
 land we live in.' This is still truer to-day. 
 
 ' England's Humiliation ' is a severe reproof, in which he 
 pointed to his protest against the boasting of the Time^, not 
 in a spirit of prophecy, but of 'common-sense,' when the 
 Allies went forth to battle. 
 
 He is ever returning to social questions, however, and the 
 great canker in the heart of London brings forth some strange 
 and sad experiences. The fallen and hopeless women of 
 London are a great problem to him — ' our missionaries have 
 reason to blush for shame in preaching Christianity to any 
 
 people We are palavering with forms ; our laws 
 
 are all artificial, ingenious devices, that never touch the 
 heart — merely wheels of a machine.' 
 
 The want of ' promotion ' in the army from the ranks was 
 being deeply felt in the Crimea, through the incompetency 
 of the officers ; we hope it may not be deeply felt again : — 
 ' The exclusion of the poor from rank in the British army is 
 neither generous nor expedient ; it is behind the age ; it is 
 like the Indian caste system ; it is like the old mediaeval 
 serf system. Order will regulate itself without such restric- 
 tions.' 'It is for this or similar reasons, no doubt, that 
 
 T 
 
274 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 recruiting is at present so unsuccessful, that at a fair of four 
 counties — Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, and Inverness — last- 
 ing four days, a recruiting party could procure no more than 
 two recruits.' 
 2sth Apr. In regard to the noble galaxy of women who, under Florence 
 
 *""''• Nightingale, went out to walk the hospitals of Skutari as 
 
 angels of charity to multitudes, he speaks out boldly in their 
 
 favour : — ' Thousands can appreciate the motives of 
 
 such women ; and those who can are the persons who will 
 ultimately influence society. They have the inspiration that 
 glows, the vestal fire that ever burns, and time, in due course, 
 wiU realise the hopes of the best, whilst it brands with 
 deserved ignominy the foul insinuations of the base.' His 
 chivalry was not only real and deep-seated, but always at 
 hand, as was natural to one with a strong faith in a female 
 Messiah. 
 
 It is a relief to us occasionally when he comes down from 
 his high moral platform and criticises the Art Exhibitions, 
 which he does with confidence. He attacks portraits ' stuck 
 2r.th May like a fly on treacled paper.' * Air is sadly wanted, and light 
 ^^^^" is wanted, in almost all portraits ; a few lessons from scene- 
 
 painters would do our portrait-painters much service, for 
 air can be painted, and space can be painted, and a human 
 being can be represented on canvas as in a looking-glass, as 
 well relieved on the one as on the other. And whoever 
 saw himself, in broad daylight, painted on a looking-glass 
 with a dark background, like a wall of treacle, unilluminated, 
 behind him 1 It is altogether unnatural and impossible.' 
 23r(i June The ' Weakness and Pretensions of Philosophy ' is another 
 
 ^^^^' wise and humorous essay, in which he acknowledges he 
 
 would not like to be called a * philosopher ; ' while in ' The 
 Labour of Book-Learning,' compared to world-learning, he 
 writes : — ' We have been trying to do too much with it, and 
 withal we have been wasting men's bodies, injuring their 
 eyesight, spoiling their health, bleaching their cheeks, com- 
 pelling them to learn by looking at small black marks on a 
 
IMPERIAL FEDERATION. 275 
 
 piece of white paper, alone by candle-light, what is far better 
 learned in society, and social and even jovial intercourse, by 
 looking at that which will neither tire the eyesight nor 
 make the mouth yawn with languor.' 
 
 'Much learning' does not blind him to its non-utility 
 per se, and his admiration of scientific specialists is not 
 excessive. He wishes to know the economical uses of flies 
 and other insect torments, and of the suffering they inflict. 
 * AYhat branch of science is that man distinguished in 1 Oh, 
 he is great on vermin ; he knows their names, describes .... 
 all ... . the formidable weapons with which they work such 
 incessant mischief, and create such everlasting suffering. Is 
 that all? That's all!' This, ho^^ever, is only natural 
 science, or science ' falsely so-called.' The potato blight he 
 looks upon as administrative, and probably in the end a 
 blessing to Ireland. In discussing the Irish question ' from 
 Dublin,' he writes : — ' It is subdued, and so is Scotland. 20th Oct. 
 One fact alone suffices to illustrate this, and is a type of many 
 other facts. Neither an Irish or a Scotch nobleman has a 
 seat in the House of Lords, nor has an Irish bishop a seat 
 in the House of Lords ; they only sit by representatives 
 as commoners do. Moreover, the Scotch Church is not 
 represented in either house. Now, every English lord 
 and every English bishop has a right to sit and make laws An imperial 
 for the whole empire. This reveals the spirit of what is ^^ ^™^" ' 
 called the L^nion. It is not a proper spirit. It may have 
 been expedient at the time — of that we know nothing, and 
 care nothing ; we look to the present. It is not expedient 
 
 now And what better mode of wiping them out 
 
 (these two blots !) than by the institution of an Imperial imperial 
 Parliament for all the empire, colonies included, and the ^®^®^**'^°- 
 restoration of the national parliaments for those local affairs 
 which are now becoming so embarrassing to the Parliament 
 of Westminster ' ! ! ! As for ladies, ' one of the most difficult ond Feb. 
 problems of modern civilisation is the construction of a 
 ladies' pocket, its place, and the mode of access to it.' There 
 
276 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 is no prospect of it being solved ! His tests for ' progress ' 
 are poverty and morality, — how can we stand the tests ? 
 
 ' After all, we cannot help being vastly amused with the 
 ridiculous pretensions of the Western world. It calls itself . 
 Christian, as Punch calls himself handsome. There is 
 scarcely a single feature of Christianity to be found in it.' 
 
 In summing up an article on 'Peace and its Prospects,' he 
 remarks : — ' The Greek element in Turkey fortunately pre- 
 vents the consolidation of Turkish rule, but that element is 
 favourable to Kussia. Russian prospects are favourable ; 
 lut the time is postponed, and theyolicy changed.'' A curious 
 commentary at the end of the Crimean war ! 
 
 An interesting question is raised on the power of the 
 press, which a Spaniard had declared to be more powerful 
 in despotic countries than in free countries. In such coun- 
 tries it becomes a dictator, in place of a reasoner and distri- 
 21st May butor of knowledge: 'The press is weak in England ; that 
 is, not to be feared, because of its freedom ; but it is still 
 
 weaker and less to be feared in America The 
 
 despotism of the press is as dangerous as any other despotism, 
 and therefore it is not a thing to be desired. The press 
 should be free, but the people should be freer. It is the 
 
 freedom of the public mind that we want It is not as 
 
 a dictator that the press becomes a blessing to a people ; it is 
 only as a collector of facts, a humble and modest reasoner 
 on facts, and a candid and faithful reporter of both sides or 
 all sides of every c^uestion, that it becomes a healthy and 
 invigorating element of social existence.' He is certainly 
 not enamoured of America, or her system, or her manners. 
 28th June ' American Liberty ' frequently comes under review : ' When 
 Liberty grows out of Law, it comes out with the old respect- 
 ful and loyal submission to authority ; when Law comes 
 out of Liberty, it comes out with the individual fretfulness 
 that regrets the loss of its old independence of all discipline.' 
 Keither America nor Britain regard moral charac- 
 ter. ' Is he rich ? — that is the all-important question. The 
 
 1856 
 
 1856. 
 
EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN. 277 
 
 ^Middle Ages worshipped poverty, and canonised the poorest 
 and most deplorable of the saints : we, on the contrary, see 
 no sanctity where there is no wealth, it disappears with rank 
 and the gorgeous vestments of the Church. But one era 
 succeeds another, and another is not far oif.' 
 
 The question of the ' Marriage of Law and Liberty ' is a 
 favourite one with the editor, and he frequently introduces 
 it : ' They are worthless demons apart — devils incarnate — 
 poisonous gases that become salubrious by mixture in due 
 proportion.' Erom Liberty without Law, as in America and 
 France, all sorts of new evils arise ; and under ' Full-dress ' he 
 considers that republics bring in rustic taste and rude man- 
 ners : ' The pistols, however, made their appearance also ; 19th July 
 and having laid aside the old refinements of social inter- ^^^^* 
 course, men were compelled to resort to violent means of 
 maintaining their personal dignity. Fashion is a substitute 
 
 for this violence And it is because women take 
 
 the lead in it that it has this peaceful influence.' 
 
 At all times he claims the necessity of private charity — 
 national charity will not suffice. It blesses the giver as 
 much as the receiver, and no man is so rich as to be in- 
 dependent of it. 
 
 In an amusing essay on the 'Superior Advantages' of 
 women, he gives the other side of the AVomen's Rights ques- 
 tion, and concludes that tobacco was the only enjoyment that 
 women had left an enslaved sex. If so, they have at length 
 taken possession also of this our last refuge ! 
 
 Eeturning, in a more sober tone of mind, to * Women ; 
 their Remunerative Employment,' he promulgates the whole- 
 some truth which has not yet come home to the minds of 
 the sex : ' The women, if so disposed, have an immense deal isth oct. 
 more in their power to better the condition of their own sex ^^^^" 
 than we men have More profitable female em- 
 ployment is within the patronage of the women themselves 
 than of any government in Christendom.' 
 
 About this time he has gone on another visit to Scotland, 
 
278 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 and expresses a much more cheerful view of its progress : 
 ' On the whole, there is something very hopeful in Scotland, 
 
 and that too arising chiefly out of the Union. 
 
 She is less secularised than England. There is more 
 
 spiritual, moral, and intellectual element in her 
 
 There is a natural tendency to recur to first principles, and 
 to analyse them, and even to linger upon them, whilst the 
 English bound forward gaily into action. There is a great 
 conservative principle, which may yet simultaneously unite 
 Scotland as one man, to the astonishment even of Popery, 
 which boasts of its unity.' The editor afterAvards devotes 
 an entire essay to a comparison between Edinburgh and 
 Rome, the only two ecclesiastical cities of Christendom ! 
 He expects the cold N'orth to borrow arts and taste from the 
 South in its religion ; while, on the other hand, ' the warm 
 South will borrow the cool and sober judgment of the North, 
 and temper (moderate) its prejudices by coming to an accom- 
 modation.' 
 woodhouse ' Is there any just cause or impediment why I should 
 i5th'sept. make the acquaintance of the gentleman who conducts the 
 ^^■^^" Faraily Herald,^ Mr G. Doveton Woodhouse writes to the 
 
 publisher. ' It is only lately my attention has been drawn 
 to the great merits of that publication. As I reside chiefly 
 
 on the Continent, and travel a great deal, the 
 
 greatest compliment I can pay to editor and publisher is to 
 promote the sale of the publication, and I have succeeded in 
 2)Iacing it in several families here (Bath). The Family 
 Herald is an honour to the country ; and although I have 
 never been remarkable for my attachment either to the Eng- 
 lish, or their customs or manners, or their church or country, 
 still I feel proud that my country should stand alone in the 
 production of such a serial.' 
 
 Such letters came to him as a support in the path he had 
 chosen to travel An extract from a letter of Mr J. A. 
 Jackson — spoken of as an eminent phrenologist in Glasgow 
 by another correspondent, but who is writing for the press 
 
'JANUARY SEARLE.' 279 
 
 at this particular time — is a sample of many : ' What we Jackson, 
 especially want is, an outspoken, truth-telling literature, in mhSept/ 
 which men, like the prophets of old, will have the courage to ^^^*" 
 embody their veritable inspirations without " fear of the 
 folk." You have already done a giant's work in leading us 
 to this, and ride your "white horse" like a true celestial 
 
 knight Having purchased the Herald in nearly 
 
 every county of England and Wales, and in the greater part 
 of Ireland, and having conversed with thousands of your 
 readers in those diverse localities, I know and can admeasure 
 your power, perhaps almost better than you can yourself. 
 It is immense — more especially in the quiet country towns, 
 where the ''article" is by many regarded as a species of lay 
 sermon, and its teachings treasured up accordingly, sinking 
 deep into and becoming a part of the mental being. My 
 coadjutor Mr Davey and myself have indeed often made it 
 our "Sunday's meat" when away for months together from 
 the centres of civilisation on the Cambrian or Hibernian 
 wilds.' Another correspondent writes : — ' Surely I ought to 9th Oct. 
 know you, for I have long had great respect both for your Geo."s. 
 virtues and talents ; and feel, moreover, a strong magnetism ?'januavy 
 in me towards your centre. Those leading articles of yours dearie.' 
 in the F. Herald have lately roused me so much that I 
 am at length put to the resolution of communicating with 
 you, for the purposes of recognition and congratulation. 
 
 You are doing much good, and setting people, old 
 
 and young, to think, who never thought before. It is good 
 for health to know that there are two sides to all subjects, 
 sacred and profane, and we shall have a wiser and a better 
 world when we can see this truly, and I thank you for help- 
 ing them to see it. The Herald, without being a direct 
 propagandist, is, I think, on the right tack ; holding to the 
 religious idea, and giving but a due and not an exaggerated 
 weight to the form and garniture of it. This is what is 
 most needed in the teaching of this day, especially amongst 
 the working-classes, who are in all things too intellectual 
 
280 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 and negative, and have become deniers of the Divine, be- 
 cause they have seen its name and functions put to such 
 open profanation.' Like many others, then and since, he 
 suggests a collected edition of his papers, as not only an 
 acceptable book in a literary sense, ' but one that would do 
 immense service to life, manners, and intellect.' The writer 
 of this letter was at that time an educational organiser at 
 Huddersfield, and afterwards, in his remarkable story The 
 Gipsies of Davie's Dike : a Story of Hedge-side Life in Eng- 
 land in the year 1855, published in London in 1864, he 
 quotes ' Shepherd Smith, as he is called in England, or to 
 give him his proper style and name, the Eev. (J.) W. E. 
 Smith, so long editor of the Family Herald, whose "leading 
 articles "in that journal were the choicest specimens of Eng- 
 lish essay-writing, and contain some of the finest thinkings 
 and philosophical speculations which have been contributed 
 to modern literature ; this rare scholar and author ' 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE DIVINE DRAMA OF HISTORY AND CIVILISATION. 
 
 James Smith was now about to produce his Magnum OpuSy 
 as he considered it — his great attempt to justify and explain 
 the ways of God with man. 
 
 ' I have made up my mind to bring out a book 9th Sept. 
 
 at last, and am now engaged in writing it. It is the result James to 
 of many years' thought, and will be written freely and easily, 
 for the whole subject is pretty clear in my mind. It is to 
 be called " The Divine Drama," and I hope it will be of ser- 
 vice to me amongst the few. I have written for the many 
 a long while, and feel assured that I might write a hundred 
 years for them with much notice. I mean to write this 
 book for the few; and even if it do not pay its own 
 expenses, it may be much worth my while, as it will give me 
 a better position. My friends also wish it.' 'My book is 3rd Jan. 
 in the printer's hands. I will not promise to send you the james to 
 sheets, as a book does not make a favourable impression read ° °* 
 so. But I shall send you a specimen of the first sheet to 
 show you the type and paper, so as to give you an idea of 
 the material of the: work. I am getting it done in very good 
 style — an octavo size, large type, and fine paper, and the 
 cost will be 10s. at 1;he very least — as the first is meant 
 chiefly for the press and the influential world, and not for 
 the people at all. I don't care about them at present. I 
 shall come back upon them afterwards. As for reviews, I 
 will take my chance. I am not a schemer, and cannot bore 
 my way amongst people. !N'or do I believe that such boring 
 habits are compatible with such work as I have to do. The 
 
282 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 book, I know, will be a remarkable book, an instructive book, 
 and one that will give great satisfaction to many. But to 
 please all is impossible ; and as for the public, it is a hydra, 
 and the more you know of it the more hydra-static it seems. 
 I have spoken to Bailliere about publishing it, although he 
 
 is chiefly in the medical line Bailliere has no 
 
 prejudices, and has a fair reputation. He knows the char- 
 acter of the book, and seems willing, but he has not yet 
 seen it. I mean to show him the sheets printed, not the 
 manuscript, which I show to no one, but give out to the 
 printer just as it is wanted. Cousins prints it for me, and 
 it is printed in beautiful new type, the type for the notes 
 got expressly on purpose, and just come from the fount. 
 The paper was bought last week — about .£50 worth : the 
 means are altogether providential — being money due to me 
 for work done many years ago, and which at the time I 
 never expected to be paid for. But it was, as it were, a 
 little Bank of Faith for this especial occasion, and this is 
 one of its auspicious features. It has many more besides, 
 so that I feel that it is a special work I have to do, and a 
 work of some importance. It is not a book written for the 
 purpose of making a book, but it is the result of many years' 
 reflection. Indeed I began to seek for the secret of it before 
 I came to London ; and though it is only of late that it has 
 been matured, and that I have been able to complete it, the 
 germ was planted twenty-five years ago, I think, at least. I 
 believe that no man could imagine it. I have let little hints 
 of it out occasionally in the Family Herald, but not enough 
 to let any man into the secret. So that I have no fear of 
 anybody taking the idea ; and as for the title, they could 
 make nothing of it.' 
 
 This letter, like many of his letters, shows the extreme 
 simplicity of Smith's mind, and his total absorption in the 
 special work that he felt he had a mission to do. The 
 belief that ' no man could imagine it,' means that it must be 
 what he called ' inspired,' having its foundation in truth and 
 
THE PENTATEUCH. 283 
 
 nature, and only formulated in his brain by the Almighty, 
 from his placing himself as a student in the hands of Xature 
 and truth. It was the Divine idea, as he conceived it, run- 
 ning through the ages. 
 
 If we have found it difficult to give an idea of the infinite 
 variety of Smith's analogies and the versatihty of his mind, 
 we must confess incapacity to epitomise his Divine Drama. 
 He says himself : — ' In our general reviews of each of the 
 Acts, we fear we have cramped the subject, and overlooked 
 so much that, were we not to mention the suspicion, a cur- 
 sory reader might be apt to seek in these imperfect summaries 
 a short and bird's-eye view of the whole, and be disappointed.' 
 All that can properly be done is to give an idea of the mode 
 of conducting the inquiry into the progress of the great five- 
 act drama which he considers the Almighty to be engaged 
 in acting for the development of mankind into unity, or a 
 universal church of ' charity.' 
 
 ' The names of the five books of the Pentateuch are beauti- 
 fully characteristic of the Five Acts of the Divine Drama. 
 We could not find better names to distinguish them. They 
 are arrayed in this order : — Genesis, the beginning and bond- 
 age in Old Egypt; Exodus, the deliverance or liberty; 
 Leviticus, the priesthood ; Numbers, the political agitation 
 for liberty from the organised priesthood; Deuteronomy, 
 the law renewed. These names, of the most remote anti- 
 quity, contain the history of the world in a nutshell 
 
 Who gave these names we know not, but it was not Moses. 
 They are not Hebrew, but Greek names. The five great 
 missions of the universal body are beautifully analogous to 
 the five senses of the individual body. The hearing and its 
 limited mission, and the sight, with its extensive and uni- 
 versal mission, characterise the two extremes. The audible 
 word was given to Israel, confined within the echoing limits 
 of the mountains of Palestine. The written word — that is, 
 its universal distribution — is given to the isles with unlimited 
 circulation. These two are the beginning and the end — the 
 
284 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERBALIST. 
 
 limited and the unlimited. Feeling belongs to Rome, as 
 the Catholic or universal systematic sense, the great organiser. 
 Smell, or metaphysical taste, belongs to Greece. Taste, or 
 physical refinement and discrimination, characterises France, 
 as the gastronomical and fashion-leading nation of modern 
 times : together, the universal or collective body of the 
 civilised man.' 
 
 ' It is called the Divine Drama because it is an outline of 
 the progress of human society in such methodical form as to 
 give it the likeness of a magnificent providential drama, the 
 archetype of the inferior drama which human genius has 
 constructed, and the source from which it has unconsciously 
 
 derived its inspiration The Divine Drama is a 
 
 definite form and everlasting record. It is geology carried 
 upwards and onwards into human life and society ; no longer 
 writing on rocks, and beds of earth, and fossil remains of 
 organised beings, but on men and manners, in cities and 
 nations, on political and religious institutions, and leaving 
 its clear and artistic outlines in the epochs and the eras of 
 historical development. The true drama is an artistic model 
 of a Providence within a limited sphere of action. The 
 divine humanity of the acting drama is an artistic necessity. 
 
 Dramatic genius has discovered or adopted certain 
 
 laws, which have become established like the musical scale, 
 
 but the fixture of which appears to be arbitrary 
 
 All dramas of the highest rank invariably take the form of 
 
 five act dramas The collective inspirations of 
 
 genius are divine inspirations ; they are the revelation from 
 God to man of the laws of order and beauty. The number 
 (five) is consecrated to action by nature, consecrated in our 
 bodies, consecrated in our senses, and elevated thence by 
 transcendental sublimation into our feelings and under- 
 standings.' The natural development of the drama is thus 
 described : — ' In the first place, a position is described that 
 presents a difficulty, for without the difficulty there is no 
 interest to be excited. In the second place, an effort is to be 
 
NATURE OF DRAMA. 285 
 
 made to get out of this difficulty. The effort is accompanied 
 with new difficulties. In the third place, a hopeful scheme 
 is devised on purpose to complete the effort. In the fourth 
 place, the scheme fails, and the difficulties increase, and the 
 plot thickens. In the fifth place, a great and almost unex- 
 pected deliverance or catastrophe occurs.' All this is natural. 
 There is an admirable reason, he says, why the third should 
 be a failure, and not a gradual continuation of the effort in 
 the second act, in the fact that the disappointment arising 
 from a hopeful scheme of deliverance is one of the most 
 universal and at the same time distressing features of that 
 severe ordeal of moral discipline which characterises the pro- 
 vidential government of the world. And it is an indispen- 
 sable character of all moral teaching, and especially of 
 dramatic teaching, that it should reveal the agency of a 
 higher power that watches over us, and brings us deliverance 
 when hope is lost, after our utmost efforts, and that leads the 
 guilty by a path of fancied security into the very catastrophe 
 which he intended for others. The failure of the middle 
 scheme is the preparation for man's extremity and God's 
 opportunity.' 
 
 The real and great antiquity of man has not been demon- 
 strated as now ; so Babylonia, Assyria, and Egypt alone 
 are the preliminary preparation behind the curtain. The 
 Hebrews prepare the first act : — ' The direction of the per- 
 formance is north-westward, like the movement of the sun 
 in the heavens from east to west, and the obliquity of the 
 ecliptic in " combination with it." The direct line, the 
 great river of civilisation from east to west, flows right 
 through Greece, Italy, and France, from Palestine to Eng- 
 land, thus distinguishing these five great cities, Jerusalem, 
 Athens, Rome, Paris, and London, as the capitals of memorial 
 civilisation. Five distinct and original missions belong to 
 these great cities, in a manner so special, characteristic, 
 and primordial that each individually is not only the head, 
 but the founder of one of the principal elements of western 
 
28G SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 society.' In chapters rich in ilhistrations and analogies, he 
 deals with the scenes of the first act of the Jewish mission : — 
 * The Jewish is the only national literature which can, by 
 collation, make one book whose object is sacred and uniform 
 throughout, never trivial or frivolous, and whose progress is 
 developed, as if by natural growth, from the first to the last 
 of its pages. Its power lies in its universality, not in its indi- 
 viduality ; in its whole, and not in its parts ; in its sanctity, 
 
 not in its genius or talent The Eible is a vox 
 
 popiili^ and the only one that exists in the world of literature.' 
 ' The absolute, which distinguishes divinity from humanity, 
 characterises the Jewish character throughout, whether as 
 the recii^ient of an absolute law, or its reverent, its timid 
 and restricted interpreter. The mission of the Greeks is as 
 genuine, as real, and as indispensable for the final realisation 
 of the divine idea as the mission of the Hebrews. But it is 
 
 a logical mission The pro-logical and the logical 
 
 aspects of revelation are very different The one 
 
 subdues and imprisons the understanding, the other liberates 
 
 and exercises it The islands innumerable of the 
 
 Archipelago Observe the divisional characters of 
 
 this locality. This is its characteristic It is com- 
 petition, rivalry, division and subdivision, indefinite. God 
 
 is no longer one and indivisible, but innumerable 
 
 It is the land of young liberty There can be no 
 
 vital unity without diversity. Hence the divine mission of 
 both Monotheism and Polytheism, but neither has yet solved 
 the problem. The antagonism lasts until the final recon- 
 ciliation. Victory there cannot be, for each is victorious, 
 " Charity believeth all things.'" 
 
 The chapter on ' AVomen and Slaves ' in Greece is one of 
 the most informing. The bud of liberty for women ' appeared 
 out of the family circle, not in it.' ' The soul of the sex is 
 all concentrated in the female companion, not the wife.' 
 
 But 'in all that is embraced in the idea of intellectual 
 cultivation, the Greeks take the lead of all other nations. 
 
ROME'S PECULIAR MISSION. 287 
 
 They first broke down the wall of partition that 
 
 divides the physical from the metaphysical world, invaded 
 the mystic regions of spirit and essence, analysed their forms 
 and combinations, and revealed their elements. The spiritual 
 world was discovered by the Greeks. The Jews, with a 
 
 spiritual God, never were a spiritual people The 
 
 future heaven of the Jews was earth, and earth only, with 
 
 plenty of corn to eat and wine to drink, and the 
 
 sensuous understanding alone Avas addressed. It was far 
 otherwise with the spiritual Greeks, for with material gods 
 they became a spiritual people, who visited that world within 
 the mind which none but the highest order of men can read, 
 and who alone, of all the nations of the world, invented a 
 
 language wherewith to express metaphysical ideas 
 
 It was only by the Greek language that the primitive doc- 
 trines of the Christian Church were logically expressed, and 
 
 worked into their present ecclesiastical form In 
 
 the gift of the Greek tongue a spiritual mission was con- 
 veyed. That tongue was cultivated by a spiritual people ; and 
 Providence, in due time, employed it alone in elaborating the 
 doctrines of a "spiritual Church in the infancy of its being."' 
 ' The mission of Rome (the third) was Poicer. It is in- 
 dicated in the very name, which is merely Greek for strength; 
 it may be physical or spiritual, or both, thus prefiguring the 
 two careers of the empire.' The Roman mission, therefore, 
 * is the physical and intellectual development of power, 
 military, civil, and ecclesiastical, in succession, for the re- 
 union and consolidation of the whole civilised world 
 
 To her it was given to organise the nations of AVestern 
 Christendom, and establish a policy in State and Church 
 that should last for ages, and become a root from which all 
 future legislation should ramify and develop itself. The 
 palmy days of Roman history, the days of Roman innocence, 
 and honour, piety, and virtue, are the days of Roman inno- 
 cence of Greek refinement No sooner were Grecian 
 
 arts and liberties freely admitted, and poetry cultivated, and 
 
288 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 philosophy and all its concomitant scepticism studied, than 
 religion died, morality withered, and a malaria of sensuous 
 excesses in a very few generations blighted the remnant of 
 masculine and feminine virtue in the Roman people. But 
 it removed their prejudices, and liberated them. It was 
 their transition to another historical position, and higher 
 
 also No doubt, Augustus believed that he and 
 
 his successors were about to realise the mission of the 
 Messiah. It was the climax of civilisation. The work, to 
 a Pagan mind, seemed almost accomplished.' 
 
 The drama within a drama, and the bi-polarity or double 
 nature (male and female), may be passed over, to preserve 
 the simplicity of the argument. 
 
 The Middle Ages is part of the third act, and he prefers to 
 commence there with Mahomet at forty. His mission mainly 
 ' impressed the soul of the mediaeval era, inspired its chivalry, 
 warmed its devotion, fired its courage and love of adventure, 
 preserved and cultivated its catholicity, consolidated its 
 unity.' 
 
 ' Rome belongs to both worlds — the ancient and the 
 modern — and is the bridge between them; its mission is 
 double. It has therefore two histories, two empires, and 
 two classical languages — Latin and Italian. By this duplica- 
 tion it ends one trilogue and begins another ; it is the end of 
 the ancient, and beginning of modern times.' 
 
 Mohammedanism is doing its great work during this era. 
 ' At the beginning of the seventh century a spiritual revela- 
 tion was made to Mahomet, which commanded him to teach 
 the absolute unity of the Godhead, and destroy the idols. 
 He obeyed ; and, like every other great commissioner from 
 Heaven, was marvellously supported in all his difficulties by 
 the hand of Providence The forcible establish- 
 ment of the theological unity in the East, the counterpart of 
 Alexander's liberalism, is a remarkable fact, to the meaning 
 of which the Christian world has been singularly blinded.' 
 
 No historian has depicted the mental and moral aspect of 
 
USES OF 'CHIVALRY.' 289 
 
 the ^liddle Ages with more sympathy, in this third great act 
 of the drama, in which confusion reigned, but the world 
 struggled towards the light. 'Rude times they were, but 
 cradle and nursery times of coming greatness ; and the seeds 
 of greatness were plentifully sown, and the types of the 
 future appeared abundantly. The age, indeed, was a type of 
 the greater age that is yet in the future — a Catholic age, in 
 which high principle claimed the ascendency, and men 
 attempted great things, failing more for want of power than 
 of will to excel. The services of men for public, in pre- 
 ference to private, duty were greatly in demand, and the 
 supply was profuse. Men were wanted to sacrifice them- 
 selves, and they cheerfully submitted to the stern decree ; 
 they courted danger and difficulty, and seemed to delight in 
 mortification and penance.' 'The monks had studied the 
 problem of sex in one aspect, the knights viewed it in another, 
 and both spiritualised it ; and whatever their private practice 
 might be, their profession was that of a dignified purism. 
 
 This new principle belongs to Germany We owe 
 
 much to chivalry as a germ ; it attacked the rude- 
 ness of the age, and transformed and polished it.' Every- 
 thing has its good side. ' The logical eccentricities of Peter 
 on the Rock in the Middle Ages are merely paralogical 
 mystifications of splendid truths. The grand fetish of the 
 Church, and the transubstantiation by which it is main- 
 tained, is the analogue of a doctrine which reconciles the 
 highest reason and the highest faith.' 'There is far more 
 hope of an idolator of statues than of an idolator of sove- 
 reigns and dollars. And there is hope of Peter ; for he has 
 proved his sincerity, he has sacrificed much to faith, and 
 conscientiously refused to compromise his principles in time 
 of trouble ; for, though many popes have been the basest of 
 men, the balance has been put in equilibrio by others who 
 will stand comparison with the brightest names in the pages 
 of history.' * The men wrangled and debated upon what we 
 call trifles, because we are unwise, and do not know that to 
 
 U 
 
290 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 this very wrangling and debating we owe that very acute- 
 ness in which we pride ourselves,' 'The Church had 
 destroyed Paganism, and triumphed over its ruins ; but 
 
 Paganism, in its turn, arises from the dead It was 
 
 heathenism that led the way to the Keformation 
 
 It restored the classics It made men infidels. 
 
 Thus faith died, and the mission of Rome was 
 
 questioned by the fact of her own apostacy, her paganism, 
 and her immorality, and the more she cherished the arts and 
 literature in her bosom, the more it became evident that a 
 new spirit was awakened in the world, which was incom- 
 patible with the limited and presumptuous universality of 
 her empire. A beautiful illustration of the eternity of 
 missions ! Every work of God is for ever.' 
 
 ' Rome aimed at more than it could accomplish, but that 
 was just the reason why another mission should succeed it; 
 and therefore the angel proclaims over the Eternal City, as 
 it did over her ancient archetype, Jerusalem — ' Go ye up on 
 her walls and destroy, but make not a full end ; take away 
 her battlements, for they are not the Lord's. He owns 
 nothing as his but the final, though all is his in the order of 
 progression.' 
 
 ' The fourth act of the Divine Drama is the numerical or 
 analytical era in which the false unity of the third (that is, 
 the sacerdotal or Levitical) era is broken up, and its feudal- 
 ism collected into national communities, and a new attempt 
 is made to solve the problem of individual freedom, establish 
 the rights of private judgment, and discover the secrets of 
 Nature's laboratory. It is the mission of Greece, revived on 
 
 a larger scale, and a wider field of enterprise But 
 
 the new idea of the fourth act is that of separate and in- 
 dependent nationalities, and requires the wide expanse of 
 the world, and the fresh breeze from the Atlantic to give it 
 
 breath France is the first, perhaps the only, 
 
 unitary nation that is formed France being the 
 
 fii'st and most completely formed and central of all the 
 
VALUE OF THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSY. 291 
 
 modern temporal nations, it has taken the lead in language 
 and literature, as the Catholic nation in philosophy, as well 
 as in the manners and customs of civilised life, during the 
 whole of the National and Numerical Era.' 
 
 Interesting views and side-lights enliven the narrative 
 throughout : ' The Protestant controversy did much for all 
 the north-western languages of the empire ; and the pens of 
 Calvin and Luther, and their associates and successors, in 
 French and German, gave a vigour and a dignity to their 
 respective tongues of which they had not formerly been 
 deemed susceptible. There is nothing so well calculated to 
 elevate the tone and character of a language as theological 
 controversy.' Again, the higher branches of art at this 
 epoch 'followed the movement north-westward, and came 
 down to earth, and by degrees employed its genius in repre- 
 senting homelier subjects than those of the great ecclesias- 
 tical artists, and at last descended through France, in Hol- 
 land or Lowland, to kitchen and barn-door and cook-shop 
 scenery, but, at the same time, to landscape — the field of 
 liberty — in which department no artists have more distin- 
 guished themselves than those of France, Protestant Hol- 
 land, and England. This is the natural course of an artistic 
 pic tori il movement. It is from the ideal or devotional to 
 the material and natural or sensuous Catholicity. Land- 
 scape is the analogue of naturalism and materialism ; ideal 
 and devotional art is not.' 
 
 It is notable that he considers the world has gained more 
 than it has lost by the rejection of Protestantism by France, 
 as the revival of the social and refined arts would have been 
 checked, which accomplishments, and etiquette, constitute an 
 important and inalienable part of civilisation, so that ' there 
 was a moral necessity for the role which France accepted in 
 the Protestant controversy.' 
 
 The analogies and comparisons are full of novelty and 
 
 interest, and lead the reader on insensibly. ' We 
 
 find the position of England very remarkable. In the flow 
 
292 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 of the two tides of Romanism and Protestantism we perceive 
 that they meet in her, diverge and go beyond lier, into, or 
 cross and polarise in, Ireland and Scotland. In the ebb, 
 supposing the retreat of the two currents to take place, she 
 holds precisely the same position. Scotland and Ireland 
 unite in her, and thus she becomes geographically, and by 
 destiny, the spot in which the reconciliation of the two 
 ultra-principles takes place. ISTot victor}^ but reconciliation, 
 is the ultimate ; and England is the only spot in the Western 
 world which the Divine Drama assigns as the destined 
 scene of it. There were sincere and good men in all parties. 
 Catholic and Protestant, in the great struggle of the Refor- 
 mation — men actuated by strong faith and the martyr spirit. 
 
 But the Protestant Reformation was not the 
 
 mission of charity. It was the mission of faith only ; and 
 faith without charity is a persecutor. Paith burns Faith at 
 
 the stake jSTothing has ever exceeded the horrors 
 
 of the human sacrifices of Spain to the deity of Popery ; for 
 in it alone, during the last half of the sixteenth century, 
 47,676 victims were burnt alive or tortured to death, as a 
 burnt-offering and sweet-smelling sacrifice to the god of the 
 
 king, the priests, and the rabble There never was, 
 
 in any former period of the world's history, such mental 
 activity, division and anarchy of opinion, and sectarian 
 hatred, persecution, and religious alienation, as in this intel- 
 lectual era. It is hopeless, inextricable confusion, as the 
 fourth act of every well-constructed drama ought to be. 
 There is no conceivable mode in which the elements do not 
 
 antagonise The history of woman in the fourth 
 
 era begins with the fact that, at the commencement of it, 
 Francis I. introduced the female sex to Court, and thus 
 made mixed male and female society fashionable. The Pro- 
 testant clergy married ; women were educated, and allowed 
 increased and increasing opjDortunities of mental culture. 
 The consequence is a greater equalisation of the two sexes 
 in social influence. But the e - d is not yet Man 
 
England's universal mission. 293 
 
 is the desolator of his own empire, as the absohite principle 
 is of the East, until woman, and all the principles which the 
 female nature represents, enjoy their own eternal and legiti- 
 mate rights.' 
 
 The fifth act of the drama, a universal mission^ is in the 
 future, but it has a dawn ; and he holds we are in the dawn 
 of another era. He has no predilection for England or the 
 British Isles : ' There is no particular favour shown to 
 
 December in making it the winter tropic England 
 
 is merely the tropic. All nations are connected with her in the 
 movement. All feed her with their own ideas, and develop 
 and magnify, refine and multiply those which they receive 
 from her, in return ; and^that also, to her shame, provoking 
 her to jealousy by their own superiority.' 
 
 * In the fifth, or British, act the scenery is oceanic and 
 insular ; and this is a new feature in the territorial arrange- 
 ment of the Divine Drama.' And here we have one of those 
 quaint analogical paragraphs that may be considered specially 
 characteristic : — ' There the merchants of old Canaan appear 
 to have been driven, by the force of absolutism, from the 
 eastern to the western extremity of the empire. The poles 
 are merely reversed ; and commerce, being foiled in her 
 juvenile attempts to universalise the sphere of her activity 
 in the East, has found in Ocean's Isle an opportunity of 
 extending her wings and filling her sails with every breeze 
 that blows. Whatever the ancient Canaan was in name, 
 the British Isles are in reality. And as first things are 
 merely types at last — germs that find their full development 
 in ultima tes, as first teeth in second, and as down in full 
 feather — so it may be that we, in this extremity of the bipolar 
 magnet of civilisation, are nothing else than the positive 
 pole — i.e.., in commerce — of which the other was the negative. 
 It would be strange if we were Jews, after all — Christian 
 Jews, of course, if Christians we are, which is very doubtful. 
 If only Canaanites, we shall be turned out, or, which is the 
 same thing, converted into something else, if an absolute 
 
294 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 principle should happen to visit us.' And he suggests 'J.' 
 or 'I.' E. W. S. as the four initials of the United Kingdom. 
 A quaint conceit, as, indeed, much of this argument is, for 
 his besetting sin was running an analogy too hard. 
 
 ' The antagonism arising from a division of the nationality 
 into Irish, English, Welsh, and Scotch is admirably adapted 
 for -weakening the force of patriotism. Nationality is not 
 
 the British mission Amongst all the nations of 
 
 the civilised world there is none that better or so well repre- 
 sents the principle of universality as England. Here, and 
 here only, you find all the ruling principles of civilised 
 society. We have already seen that the great ruling prin- 
 ciples which have developed in the formation of European 
 society in the Middle Ages were the Church, the Monarchy, 
 the Aristocracy, the Democracy. These are all to be found 
 in England, and nowhere else. In other States there is 
 either no monarchy, no aristocracy, no democracy, or no 
 
 church establishment In England only are they 
 
 all free to exist and give utterance to their thoughts in the 
 pidpit, the meeting, or the press. It is therefore the only 
 
 representative of the civilised world The city of 
 
 London becomes the focus, as well as the radiating centre, of 
 every principle, good or bad, comprehended in the meaning 
 of the word civilisation. If civilisation, then, is the centre 
 of the world, and London the centre of mundane commerce, 
 the primordial form of universal civilisation, London itself 
 is the centre of the world ; and this beautiful idea has not 
 been overlooked by the Great Disposer, for it so happens 
 that, by projecting a hemispherical map of the world in such 
 a way as to see the greatest amount of land at once, London 
 is found to be in the centre of the hemisphere ; and with no 
 other centre can the same effect be produced. The centre 
 of civilisation is also the centre of the territorial earth. 
 
 It is the fifth great and original capital of the 
 
 Drama. Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, Paris, London, occupy 
 the direct line, and represent the prevalent idea of each of 
 
INFALLIBILITY INHUMAN ! 295 
 
 the successive acts. But this alone is the Atlantic, or 
 Oceanic, metropolis.' 
 
 The ending is a quaint acknowledgment of errors, for 
 which he craves no indulgence : — * It is this errable nature 
 which is man's proper nature. We pity the Pope if he 
 really is infallible in every sense of the word. For what 
 merit is there in inhumanity 1 AVe are more sure, therefore, 
 of our humanity in perceiving our faults than in not per- 
 ceiving them ; and if our critics discover a few more, or even 
 a host of them, they Avill never prove our inhumanity by 
 their exposure, and that is a comfort.' 
 
 A strange ' last word ' ! 
 
 And now the ' few ' he appealed to, as well as the repre- 
 sentatives of the many he did not pretend in this work to 
 reach, had their say upon the book he had produced. As 
 was only to be expected, respectable orthodoxy wondered 
 and repudiated : — ' Here is a very remarkable book, teeming 
 with information, pregnant with thought, perfectly original, 
 indicating in its author affluence in intellectual resources, and 
 great practice in their usage, but, as we venture to think, 
 the absence of any sure guide to direct, or safe light to steer 
 by. We have read the whole volume with care, with inte- 
 rest, with astonishment, and could not help being pleased 
 with the writer on the score of genius, talent, and learning ; 
 but there is a " service which is perfect freedom," and to 
 that he has not bowed his neck "With it, every- 
 thing is right — Protestantism and Popery, Spiritual worship 
 and Fetishism, Mahometanism and Mormonism. If they 
 are not true they are " bipolarities of truth," and so they 
 enjoy the countenance, one way or the other, of the in- 
 genious author. Throughout the volume there is a vast 
 deal of truth scattered, and so much of curious knowledge 
 and original observation that we much wish Mr Smith had 
 affixed an index to the work.' 
 
 This is a generous review by an opponent, who, how- 
 ever, holds that he has missed ' the only guide,' ' Christ in 
 
296 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 MrGrepg. us the liope of gloij.' Mr. Gregg, author of a Hebrew 
 1854/ ' grammar, "writes : — ' I have not been scant in eulogising 
 those merits of it which should lead men to read for 
 themselves and judge ; but I should be extremely sorry 
 that they should not read to differ from many of your 
 conclusions.' 
 
 The most important of the private critics to us is Thomas 
 Thomas T. T. Lynch, who protests against the absence of ' Christ's 
 4tii"Nov. throne ' from the book : ' It contains much valuable truth 
 ^*' admirably expressed ; and among many history-books, civili- 
 
 sation books, progress books, &c., it stands head and shoul- 
 ders taller than the rest, a Saul among them. But, if with- 
 out impertinence I may so, it has too something of Saul's 
 
 waywardness There is much more Christianity in 
 
 it than there will seem to many, and of a much better kind 
 in certain respects than they are prepared to appreciate. 
 Happy to find in you a believing, non-materialistic 
 man, no mere negativist : one who refuses to think earth 
 an abortion, but knows that it is, or rather is to be, a birth 
 — for Time is gestation. Eternity is birth (after the drama 
 is over, the felicities assured in the last scene are fully 
 enjoyed). I am happy, too, to subscribe myself, with 
 respect, and not unassured of some specifically Christian 
 sympathies,' &c. 
 
 It was in the press of the Neio Era that The Divine 
 Drama of History and Civilisation met with its warmest 
 reception. In the Spiritual Telegraioh of New York, of 
 10th February 1855, about half the sheet is occupied with a 
 sympathetic review : — 
 
 'It is an octavo volume of nearly 600 pp., but we have 
 not been wearied with reading and re-reading it. It is a 
 remarkable volume, not more for what it develops than for 
 what it suggests. The subject is, in some degree, neither 
 novel nor original as treated by the author ; but his view of 
 it is far broader and more profound than any prior discus- 
 sion. Only a vast amount of study, research, and patient 
 
'SPIRITUAL TELEGRAPH.' 297 
 
 toil, guided by keen philosophical insight, and tempered by 
 the calmest reflection and judgment, could have accomplished 
 such a work. The subject is so vast, and so many threads 
 of analogy and fact require to be carried in the reader's 
 mind to give him a satisfactory, or rather a clear comprehen- 
 sion, that few will master it Yet it is a volume 
 
 of surpassing interest, one that can hardly fail to convert to 
 its argument whoever comes to understand it. Libraries of 
 current theology are intrinsically worthless in comparison 
 with it.' Again: 'In this lengthy and yet scarcely intelli- 
 gible review, we have endeavoured to condense in outline 
 the author's argument. If we have failed to make it clear 
 it is not the fault of the argument, but rather because we 
 have found it impossible to grasp 600 8vo pp., every one of 
 which is compacted with matter almost equally important to 
 a full understanding of the subject. On the single point of 
 interesting and remarkable analogies introduced, we might 
 have exhausted our space ; so we might in a consideration of 
 the Spiritualistic views of the author. Though not treating 
 Spiritualism as a speciality, the volume is replete with the 
 logic of 'Modern Spiritualists.' The author believes that 
 the ' voice and vision ' vouchsafed to the Hebrews has been 
 the perpetual property of mankind. He regards all human 
 inspirations as Revelations, and the collective inspirations of 
 mankind as the Divine Revelation. AYe may not have 
 treated the matter in hand so as to convert our readers, but 
 
 the author of this volume has to our mind as clearly 
 
 demonstrated as it is possible to demonstrate a logical pro- 
 position by fact and analogy, the fact that the development 
 of the human race in the current considered has been of 
 Divine Providential appointment, in harmony of order with 
 the constructive and objective principles of the human legiti- 
 mate drama, which he has also exhibited as having its arche- 
 type in the Divine Drama of nature.' 
 
 In Dr. Wilkinson's appreciative notice of his friend he 
 seems to have forgotten they were once more mentally akin : 
 
298 
 
 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 1st June 
 1S54. 
 
 HeiT Robert 
 
 Goldbeck, 
 
 Pianist, 
 
 19th June 
 1856. 
 Hugh 
 Doherty. 
 
 12th Sept. 
 1856. 
 Hugh 
 Doherty, 
 
 ' I have read your book with the utmost delight, and Avith 
 great edification, and meant to write you about it, but I 
 would rather tell you how much good I think you have been 
 commissioned to do — tell you, I mean, viva voce. It is the 
 first imndum saliens in the new egg of historical truth, 
 which will let forth a fowl that will be the real chronicler 
 and memorialist of the providential earth. Before you 
 there were records of human rows, but no words of saga — 
 nothing belonging to the divine side of annals.' This ac- 
 companies an invitation to meet Doherty and Goldheck at 
 supper on the writer's birthday. 
 
 Some very remarkable letters from a prominent Free 
 Church clergyman of the time cannot be given fully. 
 
 ' your very remarkable book The Divine Drama. 
 
 I at once recognised it to be by the author of the 
 
 Family Herald from internal evidence, and on asking 
 Davidson of Manchester College he told me I was right in 
 my conjecture. I admire the work exceedingly, though, of 
 course, I am of a different opinion on inspiration, &c. Your 
 opinion of the Free Church is severe, but not unfounded. I 
 deeply regret that the Free Church has been so little pro- 
 gressive, and has so little entered into the spirit of a free 
 universal mission You evidently look at the pre- 
 sent age with the telescope of a Galileo Dr 
 
 Davidson's account of you interested me much.' His old 
 friends, who had been imbued with his ideas over many 
 years, all received the Drama as a species of revelation. 
 Even his old friend and collaborateur Hugh Doherty is not 
 antagonistic. *I am very glad to hear that your Divine 
 Drama is going to be reprinted in America, and shall bo 
 most happy to take the corrected copy with me when I go.' 
 ' Your book,' he writes later from Xew York, ' has been read 
 here by half-a-dozen of my friends and new acquaintances, 
 who all think highly of it, and would like to see it widely 
 circulated. They say it would be lost if printed and pub- 
 lished by the Spiritualists, who could only circulate in their 
 
APPRECIATIVE CRITICS. 299 
 
 own party ; whereas it might be sold by thousands and read 
 throughout this country in a few short years, if published 
 by a large orthodox publisher,' ' Xew ideas are much more 
 respected and appreciated. I expect that your book will sell 
 ten times faster here than in England.' ^ A cheap American 
 edition appeared before his death. 
 
 On very different minds the impression made by his book 
 was strong. Professor A. J. Scott, of Manchester, after 
 comparing notes on its topics and examining into it, frankly 
 acknowledges — ' I am now, at least, able to thank him for a 
 full-minded, eloquent, honest, and brave statement of a vast 
 argument. Differences of opinion, taste, and even feeling, 
 we should find many between us were opportunity given to 
 discuss.' Jolm A. Heraucl is equally ready with minor 
 criticism : ' I thank you much for your book, and think it 
 admirable, errors included. I believe that women had more 
 to do among the Hebrews than you state, e.g., Miriam, 
 Deborah, Judith. Their great women were also domestic, 
 virtuous women, and I imagine you might have stated this 
 without detriment to your theory. But on this I should like 
 to talk with you ; also on the general design of your book, 
 
 and matters universal It is my conviction that 
 
 your book cannot die. It has, too, a seminal power in it — a 
 productivity. It will be the parent, male or female, or both, 
 of other books.' 
 
 1 His friend Hugh Doherty, in 1884, when in his eighty-first year, 
 
 writes of it as ' an excellent book which I have noticed in 
 
 my French volume of L'homme ct la Nature, ' 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 LITERARY LONDON. 
 
 12th July 
 1843. 
 James to 
 John. 
 
 While the Family Herald was slowly and steadily fight- 
 ing its way to public favour, he was busily engaged seeking 
 to assimilate all of science that was ' living ' enough to aid 
 his science of life. He is interested in his brother's 
 theories. * I am not much nearer the mark in respect to 
 your optical theories than before. All that I understand is 
 that you regard light as a unity, and not as a compound of 
 colours, and there I am disposed to agree with you ; all that 
 is wanted is clearness of demonstration. I have advised 
 Robert to send you Hullah's popular treatise on music. It 
 makes the principles very simple, and will help you con- 
 siderably in the analogies of light, for music is the great 
 harmonic science, and must serve as a sort of key to the 
 harmony of the universe. Among the seven notes the con- 
 cords are alternates, — thus, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, except 
 between 5 and 8. The even numbers all concord, as 2, 
 4, 6, 8. But not all the odd, for 7 will not concord 
 with either, and that corresponds to the violet, which is an 
 exceptional colour in the seven. The 8 is the red revived — 
 1 and 8 are both red, as I explain it; but there may be 
 another mode : if you can harmonise your system with music 
 it will give it great power, and it requires no musical ear 
 to study music scientifically. It is rather mathematical 
 than phonical.' This was a needful admonition, for the 
 brothers were all absolutely deficient in musical capacity. 
 
 ' Doherty is still in France. The Phalanx was to have 
 recommenced on the 1st July if recommenced at all 
 
STUPID SCHOOL-BOOKS. 301 
 
 I hear nothing at all about the printing machine or the boat ; 
 both appear to have sunk.' And yet the machine at least 
 deserved a better fate. 
 
 The purely domestic side of James Smith's life is difficult 
 to depict. It is certain that he made a deep impression on 
 the hearts as well as the minds of his friends, but his 
 hard struggle and absorption in a great mission necessarily 
 contracted his private life. We see nowhere any lack 
 of kind feeling; he was more than liberal — like all his 
 race — with the little he made by incessant toil ; and my 
 mother in her old age loved to have his portrait amongst her 
 most regarded ones, and always spoke of him with especial 
 affection, — this even when his principles were looked upon 
 with horror, and tabooed in our family circle. 
 
 He writes kindly and sympathetically to my father on the xth Oct. 
 death of my twin brother, remarking that God himself does ^ ^* 
 not look upon death as an evil, and why should we ? The 
 other children, of whom there was a quiverful, are not 
 forgotten. 'I always remember them when I send the 
 picture newspapers, for I think they must be entertained by 
 them. Moreover, the illustrations give instruction which 
 the words would not, even if they were read, and probably 
 they might not be read.' So true is this that the writer has 
 a more vivid recollection of the history of those times from 
 poring over these Illustrated JS'ews, and being directed and 
 stimulated by the pictures to read the particulars, than of 
 any period since. 
 
 Who among us of middle age will not sympathise with 
 the following : — ' I have been revising my algebra a little of 23rd Mar. 
 late, and feel as if I could flog the stupid dominies that write james to 
 the school-books. I remember when a boy that I was "^'''"^' 
 puzzled with the language of the rules, and I ascribed the 
 difficulty to my own stupidity, but now I see that very few, 
 if any, books of instruction rightly deserve the name. I 
 have not seen one arithmetical book yet that can even 
 explain division of decimals.' And he proceeds to give 
 
302 
 
 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 loth June 
 1844. 
 James to 
 John. 
 
 examples from AValkinghame, quoting Talleyrand's saying 
 that ' language was given to man to conceal his thoughts.' 
 'It is a great nuisance to have books of this kind pretend- 
 ing to teach, whilst the principal effect produced is the 
 repulsion of the learner.' We have made a great advance in 
 this direction since his time, erring more in the direction of 
 such simplicity that youth are not trained to the hard 
 thinking of their forefathers. He seems to have received 
 some explanations from my father — who made a hobby of 
 mathematics — for which he thanks him, adding, 'We 
 generally give one or two algebraical questions every week 
 both in Herald and P.S. This it is that has caused me 
 to revise my algebra, which I had forgotten almost entirely. 
 I never had much of it.' So that he seems to have looked 
 after this department also. 
 
 On the 18th March 1844 his father had written him, 
 having * felt a great desire to write to you, only to send St. 
 Paul's beautiful blessing, 1 Cor. xv., where it is written, 
 " Death is swallowed up in victory. death where is thy 
 sting, grave where is thy victory 1 The sting of death is 
 sin, the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God 
 which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 This most beautiful passage has been to my own mind most 
 delightful consolation for eighty days, running through mine 
 own mind continually, and I hope the Spirit will make it 
 
 the same consolation to your own soul.' On the 
 
 4th June he died, upwards of 78 years old. 
 
 ' It was not possible for me to attend the funeral. It was 
 too expensive, not to speak of the time, and the money will 
 be better spent another way. I will send to mother what 
 the journey would cost. I am glad to hear that father died 
 
 so quietly and comfortably I have offered to Mic. 
 
 a five pound job from Cousins, but he seems to grumble 
 at the smallness of the sum, the first I have sent him. I 
 fear Mic. has few of the arts of making his way. People 
 must take what they can get when they are out of employ- 
 
DEATH OF DR. NAPIER. 303 
 
 ment. I have done many things for less since I came to 
 London, and if he refuses that I will take it myself. He 
 may do it in a week. It is merely a summary of French 
 
 grammar, to print on a single sheet Robert has 
 
 done the English grammar. But Robert is a little indolent r. Angus 
 in such matters. He may be very active in chemistry, how- ™ 
 ever. The literary hacks of London could write a French 
 grammar in "a day or two."' "Which of the two wrote the 
 French grammar I know not, but expect James did it him- 
 self, as none of the others had the same literary faculty, or 
 the facility. Micaiah was an accurate linguist, but slow- 
 brained ; whilst Robert Angus Smith, although equally swift 
 of brain with James, had no literary training, and was too 
 critical of his own performances. 
 
 The death of his intimate friend Dr. Napier, who had been i3th Aug. 
 
 1844 
 
 so much to him for so long, came upon him unexpectedly, as 
 he had not heard from him. ' His mysterious silence to me 
 in not answering the two last letters I sent him eleven years 
 ago prevented me from inquiring of himself, but I have 
 always taken a deep interest in him, and uniformly thought 
 and spoken respectfully of him for the last fourteen years, 
 not even blaming him for not writing to me, as I was always 
 willing to admit of the possibility of some justifiable 
 excuse.' 
 
 ' I have just finished my daylight work, having been at 
 my desk from half nine till now, when the minute hand 
 is upon twelve and the hour hand on four, and I am just 
 expecting to hear that my dinner is ready. Then I go to 
 Biggs,* take tea with him, and finish the arrangements for the * o\viier of 
 Herald^ read some proofs, &c., and at eight I go and see the 
 papers, and come home at about half-past ten to supper. 
 This is my regular Monday work There's my dinner.' 
 
 His elder brother's voluminous family has outgrown him, i4th Nov. 
 and he wishes a list of them all, with their respective ages ; 
 and in reply to warnings from his brother as to his health 
 writes, ' I take as good care of myself as I can, but I do 
 
304 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 not Avell understand liow. A gentleman from Leeds last 
 week sent me a piece of sliepherd's-plaid for trousers to keep 
 me warm during the winter, and I liave them on at present, 
 I never had such an article of dress before, and look rather 
 queer, but they are comfortable to wear, not, however, warmer 
 than good stout cashmere cloth.' The days of dressing care- 
 fully in dai% if not black, raiment in the City as a sine qua 
 non have happily passed. ' As far as eating and drinking are 
 concerned,' he continues, ' I just go on in the usual way, only 
 I usually dine at home now, except on Saturdays, when I 
 dine in an eating-house — or perhaps at Borth wick's, where I 
 
 generally dine either Saturday or Sunday 
 
 * Kobert has evidently long ago given it up (Irvingism), and 
 I am afraid, like most scientific men in the pride of physical 
 knowledge, he has given up every other church as well. 
 
 ' It seems a good sign of the advancing civilisation of the 
 metropolis of the Highlands when it receives a weekly 
 parcel from London. The cheap periodicals are doing more 
 than the dear to promote the intercourse between the capital 
 and the provinces. " The Wandering Jew," which we have 
 got translated for the Herald, is read throughout all Chris- 
 tendom. It is the most popular and influential novel that 
 ever was published. The Swiss watchmakers have voted 
 him a splendid watch — the men of Brussels have voted him 
 a statue. The priests have denounced him from every 
 pulpit in almost every country — even in Manchester and 
 Liverpool. It is an extravaganza, but it is calculated to pre- 
 judice the cause of the Jesuits. It is probable that we will 
 soon change the name and nature of the Penny Satirist. 
 It is now nearly eight years old, and the taste of the public 
 seems tending at present towards the smaller form for all 
 periodicals but common newspapers.' He returns to this 
 8th Mar. later on. ' I expect to change the form and name of the 
 James to Satirist soon — some very bad things of late have got into it 
 John. through perfect negligence, of which I was not aware till too 
 
 late. Indeed, I never look at it, having no time, and 
 
MANIPULATIVE SKILL. 305 
 
 Cousins is very good-natured and easy, and not so particular 
 as Biggs with the Herald. You saw Biggs. He dined 
 with us at Cousins' that day you dined there at Peckham. 
 I enclose a bit of cutting up that I got last Saturday in the 
 Weekly Despatch, the most extensively circulated weekly 
 paper in England, but a sad republican, democratical 
 bigot. It has taken amiss what I have said about popular 
 movements in IS'o. 92, but it has scarcely quoted fair.' 
 
 ' The Herald sticks somewhere about the same number 25th Sept. 
 
 1845 
 
 at present. It has had opposition to contend with as usual, james to 
 The P.S. has been injured much by the other penny '^^^' 
 
 book-form papers At present we do not care 
 
 much about it, but let it take its chance. I suppose its sale 
 is little more than a fourth of the Herald, but I do not know 
 the present number.' ' As for the Penny Satirist, a full set 29th Oct, 
 cannot be made up. I have not got one myself, and I do james to 
 not care much about having it, as there are many things in it 
 that I do not like. I had not the sole management of it. . . . 
 But it has fought a good fight notwithstanding. It was the 
 first of the penny papers after the reduction of the stamp, 
 and almost all the penny broadsheets are dead but itself. . . . 
 I want to call it "The Sovereign," and give it an octavo 
 form. Even Cousins himself has not a complete set of the 
 Satirist. I think there is one in the library of the British 
 Museum, where they have also a copy of the Shepherd.' 
 
 The manipulative skill seen in his drawings is not appar- 29th Oct. 
 ently confined to these. ' I am busy upholstering. In the jamea to 
 first place, I have covered my arm-chair with new leather as '^°^°" 
 well as an artist or artisan could do it, and am quite proud 
 of it. Then I am getting a pair of new curtains to my two 
 windows, with brass rods and rings. I am also getting a 
 high desk to stand at, instead of sitting, and these things, 
 with my regular employment, make me busy, and tired 
 enough both in arms and legs.' ' I dislike workmen. The last 9th noy. 
 I employed kept my chair bottom or cushion for a month ; James to 
 promised to come to do another job I had for him, and did not 
 
306 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 come Avas sent for, and did not come, and palavered with me 
 
 for three months It has given me a distaste for the 
 
 Avliole class, at least for my service, and I find I can do what 
 I want much better myself. My chair is quite perfect 
 almost.' But except in temper it has not saved him much ! 
 The cheap newspapers have been changing the conditions of 
 the bookselling trade. The booksellers seem formerly to 
 have sold the stamped papers, but he finds it difficult to get 
 
 isK "^^^^ ^^^^ Herald to the ' extremities.' ' In some small places it 
 sells well ; in others not at all. There is no accounting for 
 the caprice of its movements. Sometimes the booksellers 
 are to blame. They Avill not sell cheap periodicals. They 
 are the chief obstacle. But many have now reason to 
 regret their folly, as in some places the cheap dealers have 
 taken the London trade from them by means of their weekly 
 parcels, which enable them to execute other orders. Heywood, 
 in Manchester, who commenced by selling the unstamped, now 
 drives a very large trade in all sorts of literature. It is sure 
 to bring other trade, on account of the frequent intercourse 
 with London.' Up to this time travelling north is a 
 serious matter, and although he would like to go to Scotland 
 he hesitates. ' It would not cost less than .£20, and I 
 question much if that would be sufficient, and it is not very 
 easy getting away for two or three wrecks, though I can 
 easily get away for one.' ]^ow we can take a little 
 Continental tour in a week ! Happily a suggestion that he 
 was not properly remunerated for his work brings a rejoinder 
 
 20th June that lifts the curtain of the London penny press. ' As for my 
 publishers, they are very kind to me — the best I could get, for 
 they give me my own way, and impose no other restraints on 
 me than my own discretion, and they introduce no other 
 person to find fault or compete with me. We are very com- 
 fortable together. There are hundreds of literary men in 
 
 The London London who woidd be glad of my position ; and I, who ought 
 to know best, do not find fault with my publishers. I 
 would not change my position for any other that I know. 
 
THE LONDON PRESS. 307 
 
 I belong to the Cheap press. It is an uphill fight I know, 
 but I wish to fight it, and it may be that there is a rest-and- 
 be-thankful somewhere on the hill, either on the top or the 
 
 side of it I have never found men who have 
 
 treated me better; they enable me to live just like themselves. 
 They are just making a living like myself, not a fortune. 
 Who is making a fortune at publishing ? . . . . I have been 
 particularly fortunate, and can ascribe it only to providential 
 causes, so that I regard myself as placed at a post for a 
 special purpose, and I cannot leave it. There is no other for 
 
 me The Daily News is trying 2|d., but the 
 
 possibility of success is doubted by all the trade (It) 
 
 printed the first day of its reduction 30,000, next day it fell 
 to 25, and then to 20,000, &c. What it is now I know not, 
 but it gives Jd. to the vendor. Id. to the government, besides 
 a fraction more for expense of stamping, waste, &c., so that it 
 has not a clear penny. It is supposed that its advertise- 
 ments will not pay for the supplement when it gives one. 
 Its advertisements are not good. It has been a dead failure. 
 Hudson, they say, is in it, and they have already lost £50,000. 
 Some of the Punch party wrote for it — Douglas Jerrold for 
 instance ; and now, as you may see from our F.H. advertise- 
 ments of the coming numbers, Douglas Jerrold advertises a 
 
 paper of his own Dickens was on it, and was first 
 
 discharged. His father-in-law Hogarth, the editor of the 
 
 Musical Herald^ was induced to give up his place as musical 
 
 reviewer for the Morning Chronicle^ which he had occupied 
 
 for twenty or thirty years, to write on the Daily Neics, and 
 
 now he is likely to be thrown on the shelf. He was glad to 
 
 apply to Biggs to publish the Musical Herald. The Punch 
 
 party have had many ofi'shoots. Albert Smith was on it 
 
 one time, and was turned off or came ofi^, and started 
 
 MephistopheleSi but it did not take. !N"umerous attempts 
 
 are being made which come to nothing, and I only wonder 
 
 that some great house does not start on our principle and do Commencing 
 
 for us. But I doubt not some other opening, even then, Press. 
 
308 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 will arise, and we will keep our ground. "VVe have a legiti- 
 mate right to it. I may be said to have written in the penny 
 press from its commencement. Cousins and I commenced 
 it in its broadsheet form, and Biggs and I commenced it in 
 its quarto form — that is, they were publishers, and I editor. 
 So that I have began both forms, and may begin some other 
 yet, if other is to come. We do what we are driven to do ; 
 so long as things go on easily we let them go.' 
 
 He is never in robust health, and could scarcely be. ISTow 
 he tries galvanism, which he acknowledges does some good, 
 but not permanently. But his body never occupies much 
 of his thoughts. 
 
 He cares little about the historical accuracy of the Bible : 
 ' Moreover, true history is impossible, for the truth depends 
 on the reader's true conception of it ; and if he conceives it 
 falsely, it is false. If you read even an accurate account of 
 an historical event, and form an inaccurate idea of it, which 
 you are sure to do, the history is false to you, for it has 
 
 falsified the idea of itself in your mind Parables are 
 
 truer than history, because they are ideal only, and the idea 
 
 is the truth The fact of the Church is the great 
 
 fact, and moreover it is the greatest of all miracles. But a 
 vulgar Christian cannot see this. Because he says that the 
 fact of Mahommedanism is also a great fact, and so it is ; and 
 the man who could believe that God did not commission 
 Mahomet and Mahommedanism may as well profess Atheism 
 at once, for he is an Atheist at heart. .... But .... 
 Christianity is higher than Mahommedanism, and is rapidly 
 eclipsing it and putting it out, as the sun puts out the moon.' 
 
 * The man who says he can see the justice of God in sending 
 a man to hell for ever, for unjust sin or any other sin, and 
 keeping him there alive in torment, "as red as red-hot iron," 
 as Aleine says in his Call to the Unconverted, is neither 
 more nor less than a theological monster — a madman.' 
 lothArvii 'I think the pictorial papers are a little better those two 
 
 or three weeks past. They had some wretched cuts a while 
 
 1847. 
 
MANUFACTURING BOOKS. 309 
 
 ago. I was thinking of writing to the editor to send to France 
 for some apprentices to do the work for him, as the French 
 Illustration, got up in imitation of the London Illustrated^ 
 is greatly superior in its artistic department. Indeed, many 
 of its wood-engravings are equal to copper-plates — some of 
 them exquisite productions. The French also seem to be 
 able to cut likenesses in wood, which the English cannot do. 
 They are all miserable daubs. France used to be inferior to 
 England in wood-engraving. They had to send to England 
 to get their best work done, and many English artists some 
 years ago went over to Paris, in consequence of the demand. 
 Now England is eclipsed totally.' After an amusing account 
 of Alexander Dumas as a novelist he proceeds : ' He engaged 
 in one year to produce eighty volumes. Such fellows write for 
 money, and not for posterity. They first gain a reputation, 
 and then sell it or lend it out on hire : a poor genius has no 
 means of publishing a book, he sends it to Dumas, Dumas 
 has no objection to foster it. It sells in Dumas' name, and 
 thus both parties gain by the trick. We are not so bad as 
 that in London, although there is a good deal of this. 
 Macculloch's books are all written in this manner, and such 
 books as Knight's, the Penny Cyclopedia for instance — one 
 man receives pay for producing a article, he produces it with 
 the aid of another, and pockets the greater part of the pay. 
 I know one poor fellow who wrote many of the Penny 
 Cyclopedia articles in this way. He was the curate; the 
 rector had all the honour and the reward. It is a grand 
 humbug the press.' 
 
 A further insight into the London press of that time 
 follows, with perhaps a spice more of feeling in it, as if 
 smarting under the sting. ' I suppose you would see the 22nd Dec 
 attack that the Daily Neivs made upon the Penny Press. It 
 was a blunt arrow, merely a bit of spite. They praised up 
 the People's Journal, their own paper, printed at the same 
 office as the Daily News. Eut they could not save it. It 
 is dead since. It died last Saturday. It was advertised for 
 
310 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 sale by auction, but tliey could not keep it alive till auction- 
 day. They also praised up (Jliamhers, but he is going down 
 rapidly. Some of our agents have even given up ordering 
 any copies of Cliamhers, and his Tracts died a week or two 
 ago, like the People^ s Journal. So that what they praised 
 most the public care least for. The fact is they do not 
 understand human nature. They think that scientific facts 
 and philosophy must be crammed down the people's throats. 
 This they call intelligence. Dry reading to most people, 
 and the most intelligent will not go to the Penny Press for 
 such reading. The mission of the cheap press is universal — 
 it is to human nature, and not to scientific nature. The 
 Daily Neics committed a sad blunder. It has set the whole 
 of the cheap press against it, and they can do it great 
 mischief. The proprietors are anxious to get rid of it. It 
 has been a dead failure throughout. It began with low 
 radicalism, railing at the bishops, and moreover with 
 Dickens' light gossip — although it now pretends to be so 
 very intelligent as to despise gossip, and Dickens was driven 
 out in a few days, so universally disliked were his letters in 
 a daily paper. This was their first blunder, and they have 
 gone on from blunder to blunder ever since. They have 
 one or two good writers employed, but they do not manage 
 
 the paper We owe the great press no favour, for 
 
 none of them assist us. But still we get on in spite of them, 
 and are really more comfortable than they are in general ; 
 for, with the exception of the Times and Advertiser, the 
 publicans' paper, there is scarcely a paper in London that is 
 not in diflBculties. And how they do deceive the advertisers 
 and the public ! There is BlaclacoorVs Lady^s Magazine, once 
 a good paper : it still keeps up its fame for a good advertising 
 medium, yet it only jmnts 150 coj)ies. I question if it sells 
 to any but the advertisers themselves. Yet they always 
 demand 5000 copies of advertising sheets, to be stuck in ! 
 The 4850, of course, are used as waste-paper ! A gentleman 
 lately advertised a book several times in the Times, he did 
 
READERS OF 'FAMILY HERALD.' 311 
 
 not sell a copy. At last he tried the Family Herald alone, 
 and in a few weeks he sold off an edition of 500 copies ! 
 
 * We have had little more of the Daily Neivs' attack. 1 29th Jar. 
 think it has discovered its folly. It made an abortive james to 
 attempt to get up an excitement in favour of the reduction 
 of the stamp to a halfpenny and get rid of the penny papers 
 by putting a halfpenny-stamp on all of them ! The man 
 who conceived such an idea was merely a fool. The trade 
 only laughed at the idea. The People's Journal belonged to 
 the Daily News party ; it was three halfpence. The Daily 
 News praised it, and said there was no respectable paper 
 below three halfpence ! Why, our Herald goes where the Herau. 
 People's Journal never could enter. It goes amongst nobility 
 and gentry. It used to be sent, and for aught I know still 
 
 is, to the Duke of JS'orfolk. Mrs B , who knows some 
 
 fashionable j^eople, sees it often on drawing-room tables; and, 
 only a few weeks ago, she said she saw the Misses Bishop 
 reading it. Their mother is daughter of the Duke of 
 Gordon, and they have a most magnificent palace not far 
 from London, where they see the very first nobility and 
 gentry. She also sees it at Mrs Campbell's, where Miss 
 Campbell, a great heiress and toast at the west end, amuses 
 herself with it. Biggs used to send it to the Countess of 
 Surrey, the Duke of IS'orfolk's daughter-in-law. The People's 
 Journal was too low and radical to see good society. It is no 
 small recommendation to the little penny Herald that, not- 
 withstanding its inferior quality of paper, it has established 
 its reputation as the most respectable of the cheap papers. 
 It stands first, M'ithout a rival. However, it is no easy 
 matter to keep it there, and it requires great care and 
 judgment. Biggs is a capital publisher, and without his 
 business talents it would not do at all.' On no account will 
 he be considered to pander to the mob, nor have his 
 publisher disregarded ! 
 
 He has just received from his brother the constitution of 
 the Educational Institute, and is delighted to see the effort 
 
312 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVEESALIST. 
 
 to promote organisation in a profession that his brother was 
 
 making great efforts to increase in influence. 
 
 13th April The Chartists ! We have almost forgotten the excitement 
 
 James to that once prevailed, and it may do no harm to peep behind 
 
 Chai-tism the scenes and note how Chartism conducted itself in those 
 
 days. ' We are all quiet once more, notwithstanding the 
 
 loud threats of the Chartists. They were more formidable 
 
 in the country than they ever were here. We had no fear 
 
 of them beating ; we only feared a commotion — bloodshed 
 
 and loss of property. They are a paltry, insignificant set. 
 
 There is not a respectable man amongst them. I was quite 
 
 surprised when I heard they were bawling so loud. I had 
 
 never even heard of their petition lying for signature. I 
 
 never saw it announced anywhere I have no doubt 
 
 it was signed chiefly by boys, and it seems that the Duke of 
 
 Wellington has signed it no less than seventeen times 
 
 It is a monstrous humbug. We live close to the road that 
 it was to have come, so I was rather afraid of a row and 
 some breakages, and one great rush came past my window 
 just when I was engaged in answering my correspondents. 
 But they were good-naturedly running away from the police, 
 who were clearing the road Instead of being per- 
 mitted to take the cabs with the petition over Westminster 
 Bridge, they were told they could not pass. They then went 
 up a mile and a half to Vauxhall Bridge. They were told 
 they could not pass there, and told by the constables that 
 
 they were d d asses ; then they took it up to Battersea 
 
 Bridge It ought to have taken place on the 1st of 
 
 April, but it was the 10th, and that is the same as the first 
 in decimal numeration.' All Europe was in ferment, how- 
 ever. ' The French Revolution has brought the Fourierites 
 forward, and Doherty and his party are busy with their 
 principles. Louis Blanc, one of the Provisional Government, 
 is a Fourierite. Owen is over there at present, or was lately, 
 and has been examined by the Provisional Government. 
 Doherty acted as his interpreter. .... Great changes will 
 
DANGERS OF THE PRESS. 313 
 
 no doubt be effected, and these changes will be deeply 
 
 imbued with the spirit of Socialism or Association 
 
 It has made an impression, and convinced men of the 
 necessity for attempting some mode of more equitably 
 distributing the productions of industry and awarding the 
 
 wages of labour There must be a greater amount of 
 
 concession and popularism introduced into our system, and 
 that is better than revolution. We gain by French Eevolu- 
 tion more than France herself.' 
 
 After protesting against his brother having anything to do loth June 
 with the press : ' A friend of mine has a passion for editing, * •• 
 and lately bought the Court Journal. He had enough of it 
 in a month; — edited his own paper for nothing, neglected his 
 business, sold the paper at a loss, and is now laid up with a 
 series of ailments. Take care of it. Every one considers 
 me uncommonly fortunate in having so steady a position, 
 though by no means eminent; yet many who write for 
 dailies and quarterlies would be glad to exchange positions 
 with me. They do not know the secret of it. I have been 
 providentially dealt with all along, and have ideas altogether 
 different from theirs, which have their mission to fulfil. 
 Were I to write as others do — anything for pay — I should 
 be treated as others and tossed about as they. But I write 
 in a certain strain always, and develop a class of ideas 
 precisely the same in substance as those with which I came 
 to London, but which have been modified since I came here. 
 Without my short training, however, at Ashton-under-Lyne, 
 I could not have occupied my present position. Never a 
 day passes but I feel the benefit of that schooling, but 
 nobody knows of it, nor knows how it could benefit me. I 
 do, and would go back there again were I deprived of the 
 knowledge and experience I there gained.' 
 
 He has not been well ; his sight has been troubling him 
 much, especially one eye, and he has taken advice and been 
 at Brighton, where he got an eye-salve and eye- water from 29th Sept 
 one of the bathing- women : ' Last night I read the papers james to 
 
 John. 
 
314 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 for an hour or two, small print, without any pain or annoy- 
 ance, — a thing I have not done for three months before.' 
 
 The journey to Perth in fifteen hours would be too much 
 for him, he could not stand it ; and Brighton is like being 
 in London : * I wrote a leader in Brighton last Thursday, 
 
 and had a proof of it on my table at breakfast on 
 
 Saturday morning. But the leaders are nothing. I could 
 easily prepare half a dozen leaders, and have them all ready 
 before I started. It is the correspondents which is the 
 difficulty.' iSTor does he like the prospect of travelling by 
 rail ; he regrets the old stage coaches, ' and the nice, comfort- 
 able seat beside the coachman on a fine summer day; that is 
 the travelling for me. But the coaches are all knocked up 
 or broken down, which is the same thing, and the poetry of 
 travelling is gone for ever.' 
 
 James Smith is now 47, and his staid brother must have 
 been rather startled at the next letter he receives. After 
 a disquisition on the incapacity of the medical profession, so 
 far as he has ever discovered, and he seems to have consulted 
 
 4th Nov. many, he proceeds : — ' I am obliged to give up reading to a 
 considerable extent, and find it no easy matter to spend my 
 time. So, for a change, I am taking lessons in dancing from 
 
 Mrs Henderson I am in hopes it may do both my 
 
 health and my eyes good; it is a change of exercise. 
 Whether he had been reading of Socrates, or inspired by his 
 friend, we know not, but he tells it with his customary direct 
 
 eth^Mar. simplicity. It did not improve his sight ! ' I read as little as 
 possible. Indeed, I do not read all the Family Herald. The 
 stories I very seldom read, and sometimes omit the other 
 parts. But to read other periodicals, or even skim over their 
 contents, would be very hard and unprofitable labour — labour 
 for which I am not fit I have little or no corre- 
 spondence with the gentlemen of the press ; I do not like 
 them. I was scarcely ever introduced to one that did not 
 repel me in some manner. They all carry their principles 
 very loosely, unless they happen to be bigots or furious 
 
 1848. 
 
 1849. 
 
JOUKNALISTIC INFIDELITY. 315 
 
 partisans, and then they are quite as disagreeable in the 
 rigidity and uncharitableness of their opinions, as the rest 
 are repulsive by their loose, and utter want of faith in 
 human sincerity. One main cause of this, perhaps, is the 
 want of sincerity in themselves. They are so much in the 
 habit of writing for party and for mere pay, that they seem 
 to regard those as the principal motives, and conviction as a 
 thing to be worn like a cloak, ofif and on, as one feels disposed 
 to wear it. What is very remarkable of the press gang, as 
 Mrs. Butler calls them, is, that although almost all infidels in 
 private, they dare not avow their infidelity in their papers. 
 They all profess Christianity as writers, and laugh at the 
 profession as talkers. This shows the influence of public 
 opinion.' But yet a great under-current of infidelity is 
 maintained in the public journals. ' A lady remarked to me, 
 in reference to something I had said in a late leader against 
 the common doctrine of eternal punishment, that she feared 
 it would give ofience, as the people stuck to the faith of 
 hell-fire with greater pertinacity than to the hope of 
 redemption itself. But I have not had one letter of com- 
 plaint. One gentleman only asked how I could reconcile 
 what I said with what Christ himself says. This is rather 
 a remarkable fact ; I believe it could not have happened ten 
 or twelve years ago. It is the most monstrous faith that 
 perhaps the human mind could entertain, and yet it is the 
 faith of Christendom — the literal interpretation of a spiritual 
 word — a riddle read in its obvious meaning, instead of being 
 solved.' 
 
 A chatty and amusing letter to his niece, in return for a 
 pair of ' sewed slippers,' brings out the difi"erence in expres- 
 sion in London, where they would say ' working slippers ' in 
 place of 'sewing' them. 'The English ladies seldom do 
 anything so beautiful. I have had several presents of 
 
 slippers, but yours excel them all Your deer's 
 
 head on my slippers is a beautiful painting, better than 
 some of the celebrated ^liss Linwood's, which are shown in 
 
316 
 
 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 21st Aug. 
 1849. 
 James to 
 John. 
 
 20th July 
 1850. 
 James to 
 John. 
 
 London here, in a gallery, for a shilling.' This niece. Miss 
 Jessie Knox Smith, afterwards the life-long companion of 
 Dr. Eobert Angus Smith, was from her earliest years as 
 skilled with pencil and brush as she was with the needle. 
 
 If his brother Micaiah loved not opposition and took not 
 advice, as he complains, James was as little amenable to it 
 himself. In fact, the race made by no means good servants, 
 being too strong-headed, at the same time that they were too 
 highly and finely strung to be leaders in the throng of men. 
 ' As for your advice, it is of no use sending it here, as you 
 know nothing of me or my affairs. I am more likely to faU 
 into one-sidedness by following your advice than my own. 
 Look after your own afifairs, and don't drink so much brandy- 
 wine,' an advice that was probably required greatly in Perth 
 at that time, although his brother was a man w^ell under 
 control The efi'ort of his youngest brother, R. Angus, to 
 obtain a Professorship in Manchester, calls for some observa- 
 tions quite in keeping with the views he always expresses in 
 his essays as to dress : ' I do not think he has much chance, 
 nor do I suppose it would be of very great advantage to 
 him. Robert's appearance is against him, and he does not 
 endeavour to correct it by dress. He dresses very carelessly. 
 Some people can afford to despise dress, others cannot ; and 
 I think it is well for society when they cannot, for to dress 
 becomingly is a moral duty — it is a part of good-manners. I 
 think, however, Robert will do well by and by in his own 
 way.' His connection with Strathaven is maintained in 
 spirit only, but an occasional note in his correspondence 
 shows an interest. Connections of the family had returned 
 from America on a visit. *I am glad to hear that the 
 Curries are so prosperous. I was struck with the great 
 change in Margaret and Jane since I knew them in their 
 youth, a sad change for the worse, and yet the same 
 distinctive peculiarities preserved. They looked pale and 
 careworn, and they remarked how very healthy-looking the 
 London people were. The Cockneys are certainly fresher- 
 
'STRAVEN' in LONDON. 317 
 
 looking than they were, and James Currie looked quite 
 sallow and withered amongst us. The American climate 
 has not much improved him. It is too hot, I expect. It 
 exhausts him.' 
 
 'Do you remember when we were in the Pantheon at 12th Apru 
 
 1851 
 
 Paris, that empty church where we heard the echo, that they 
 had a ball suspended from the centre of the dome. I 
 remarked at the time that it did not hang central, but 
 several inches on one side. They are now making use of it 
 to show the movement of the earth on its axis. It seems it 
 revolves round the centre. They have got the place railed 
 in for people to look at it, and they can see the movement, 
 so many degrees in an hour. It was thought at first that it 
 should take 24 hours to revolve, but it takes 32. It would 
 take 24 near the pole, and not revolve at all at the equator. 
 They are already showing it in London. It can even be 
 shown in a dwelling-house, although the higher the ceiling 
 the better.' Quite a novelty when tried from the Eiffel 
 tower forty years later ! In spite of his isolation and absence 
 from ordinary young life, he writes a sympathetic account 
 of my eldest brother's departure for Manilla, having taken 20th April 
 him to Southampton to the steamer. ' I wish he had come james to 
 
 a few days sooner, to have seen London But I '^°^^' 
 
 gave him as large a sweep of it in one day as I could ; and 
 what with walking, and riding on the tops of omnibuses on 
 Good Friday, we got over all the principal parts, and had a 
 glance at them. But it was only a glance, .... though I 
 took him down to the East India Docks, and from the 
 Blackwall railway he had a view of the wilderness of house- 
 tops that is seen therefrom. He was so fortunate also as to 
 get into the Exhibition, and see what few Cockneys have yet 
 seen. So that he goes to Manilla with the world's wonder 
 in his head.' The 'world's wonder' is attracting many to 
 London. ' There are a number of Straven folks here at 8th Juij 
 present. John Tennant, the postman, Mr and Mrs jamesto 
 Ferguson (Ellen Simpson wee), (afterwards of Auchenheath), '^°^°" 
 
J851 
 
 318 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Millar, Thomas and James Cochrane, and a 
 Mr. Harvey. There is also a daughter of Margaret Vallance, 
 Margaret Vallance by name. I was at the theatre with the 
 most of them last night. John Tennant wears well. He is 
 a thoroughbred Stravenite, a clever man. I knew him at 
 once in the Exhibition, and walked seven hours with him 
 there. He had been two hours before I met him, and he did 
 not seem to be fatigued. In fact, people seldom are fatigued 
 in the Exhibition. It is curious that people who can walk 
 nowhere else, can walk there very freely.' 
 
 Allan Thomas Attwood, Knaresborough, is one of his 
 correspondents who discusses his views intelligently and 
 2nd Jan. sympathetically. ' Believe me, none appreciate your articles 
 in the Family Herald in a higher degree than do I and Mrs. 
 Attwood. I read out to-day those of the part current to 
 both her and another lady now in the house, and exceedingly 
 interested and instructed we were by them. It is refreshing, 
 amid the din of party controversy, to read the opinions of a 
 spectator ah extra, and though I do not agree with all your 
 analogies, to your conclusion I unfeignedly subscribe ; in fact, 
 have been preaching a series of sermons during Advent, in 
 which I attempted to show that we want the Universal 
 Teacher, the Universal Restorer, the Universal King. I 
 fancy many more people, especially among the clergy, hold 
 views favourable to the millennial theory than you are 
 perhaps aware of.' There is a voluminous correspondence 
 with this clergyman, to whom he also sends a letter from 
 Sandus Wilfridus, Edinburgh, discussing Eomanism. 
 ' Knowing your objection to a hound hook, I will not press 
 the suggestion of the " jSTeophyte," about republication of 
 your essays, but I think it a very good one, and should be 
 very glad to become a subscriber to the volume, as well as 
 to canvass for others,' so that he takes calmly Smith's attacks 
 upon his own church. Sandus Wilfridus is, however, soon 
 
 forgotten in a new rival, who signs himself ^^p ^^^ ' > 
 
EOMANIST SEVERITY. 319 
 
 a signature that Attwood suggests a name for : ' The curse 
 
 is dreadful as to language and spirit Is not " Father 
 
 Ignatius " the author of the Anathema 1 no one but a crack- 
 brained enthusiast could have written it, one would hope : 
 and from all accounts Mr. Spencer, Father Ignatius of St. 
 Paul's, is just the man.' The 'iligant language' was especially 
 called forth by the publication of the contents of this note : — 
 'Permit me to state to you the following facts which 
 recently occurred in a Catholic family residing in Hammer- 
 smith. A female member of the family, a young lady in 
 her 18th year, having been detected in the atrocious act of 
 having eaten meat on a fast day, was ordered by the priest 
 visiting the family, who is of the order of Jesuits, to receive 
 a flagellation, which was actually administered on her naked 
 person with a birch rod. The punishment was as severe as 
 the nature of the instrument would admit of, the poor girl 
 having been previously secured on a sofa, so as to render 
 resistance useless. The above facts, which I can fully prove 
 to be strictly true, I have taken the liberty of troubling you 
 with, in hopes, by your kindly noticing them, it wiU prevent 
 a repetition of such disgusting proceedings in future. I have 
 written this by the wish of a relative of the young lady, who 
 was an eye-witness of the punishment, which she describes 
 as being of the most severe description, being administered 
 by a powerful woman, an old servant of the family, who, like 
 the rest, are entirely under the influence of the miserable 
 priest. She states the number of stripes to have been at 
 least 60 or 70, two rods having been used on the occasion. If 
 you will kindly notice this, I think you would be doing a 
 service, as your paper is constantly read by the family I 
 write of. P.S. — I am at liberty to give the real name and 
 address of all the parties.' 
 
 'Tlie Curse. 
 
 * " For your assaults on our holy religion, I shall prohibit 
 your dirty publication from being read by any of the 
 
320 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 faithful under my direction. For such vile fellows as you 
 there is but one course, z.e., to surround you with a heap of 
 your filthy trash and burn you to ashes, so that your poetical 
 carcase might taste of the fire which will consume your soul 
 in hell for ever and ever ! 
 
 ' "Anathema ! in the name of the Blessed Trinity, I curse 
 you and yours : in the name of the Holy Virgin, 
 St. Joseph and St. James, I curse you. Anathema ! 
 Amen ! Amen ! " ' 
 To balance this remarkable production is one that must 
 July 1S51. have pained him more deeply. It commences ' My Dear and 
 racombe. jjQQQ^pg(j Lord and Master,' confesses the sin and unworthi- 
 ness of the writer, evidently a woman of education, and 
 concludes by confessing her faith in him as the expected 
 Messiah ! The danger to weak minds of constant introspec- 
 tion and discussion of such questions as were his ' daily 
 food ' must have been thus brought strongly home to him. 
 
 His brother and sister-in-law, like all the world, had been 
 to London from Perth to the world's show, and with that 
 peculiar fear of being in the way when paying calls, which care- 
 ful provincial housewives had in the old days, had blimdered. 
 James to my ' You gave great offence to Dr. Vallance by not calling. Miss 
 ml s* ^^ Currie (2) were there at the time, staying with the Doctor ; 
 1851.^'^^^* and John has given great ofi'ence to Mrs. Henderson by not 
 calling ; James (his nephew) and Miss Garland took tea with 
 her last night ; and also to Mr. Cousins for not calling, so that 
 you have made a few enemies by your own scrupulousness. 
 
 I went to Kew Gardens and Fern House with 
 
 Misses Currie. They are going all to America for ever.' 
 
 North once more in Scotland, his native air seems to 
 stimulate conflict. He writes from Glasgow on his way 
 back to London, — ' I know Professor Maurice a little, and 
 have read a little of his writings, and have also read the 
 review you allude to. He aims at universality, but is 
 hampered by the position which he occupies in the Church. 
 He is not a free man. But even if he were free he wants 
 
JOURNALISM. 321 
 
 Catholicity, and sings the old song of the Christian priest- 
 hood, which he would fain invest with an authority that it 
 
 never can possess He wants to show that Christ 
 
 has an organised kingdom here on eari;h, but in attempting 
 to show it he proves too much, for he proves that it is not 
 in Rome and not in Scotland, but only in England, and yet 
 not even there either. So that after all he proves it out of 
 the world : that is just where it really is.' 
 
 ' Manchester has very much improved since I saw it last. 
 I thought it much cleaner, and I saw nothing like the 
 wretchedness I saw in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Even the 
 oldest and the dirtiest brick lanes seemed to have comfort- 
 able houses, and the windows and the interior had all a 
 cleanly appearance ' — while he dilates upon the filth he had 
 seen in the Scotch cities. The great question of employ- 
 ment for his nephews causes him to discuss professions and 
 business. ' The Church is becoming less and less eligible as 29th Nov, 
 
 1851 
 
 a sphere of employment either in town or country, for the 
 press is gradually superseding the pulpit, and will ere long 
 do the business for it. But nobody can be trained for the 
 press. Though some make their thousands a year by it 
 they were not educated for it. Each man takes it up for 
 himself, or is drawn into it by Providence, he knows not 
 how. It is a miserable employment for a man who merely 
 wants to make a trade of it. It is enough to drive him to 
 his wits' end. It invariably leads to poverty, for such a 
 man having no other object but that of making money is 
 so much engaged with thinking of what will take or sell, 
 that he neglects to think of what is just and true, and 
 therefore sinks like a stone.' Once more revolution has 
 swept over France, 'a windfall for Popery and Despotism.' 
 ' Louis Napoleon, like all supreme rulers, means to be liberal 2.3rd Dec. 
 
 if the people will let him be so in his own way 
 
 He will sit upon bayonets. I think it a good thing for 
 France for a while at least. The intellectual or doctrinal 
 propaganda of Paris was as complete a Babel as ever 
 
 Y 
 
322 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 aspired to heaven, and Louis Xapoleon lias done good 
 service to the civilised world by bringing it all down about 
 
 the ears of the Babel builders But the intellect 
 
 of France is a young giant, or rather a hydra with a 
 thousand heads and a thousand resources. It is a spirit 
 that is not to be checked or restrained by any physical 
 force whatever. There can be little doubt that, liowever 
 long Louis Xapoleon's power may last, it must meet with 
 tremendous opposition, that will provoke him to use his 
 utmost strength ; and if he should throw himself into the 
 arms of the priests, as he will be strongly tempted to do, he 
 will awake the spirit of blasphemy in greater strength 
 
 than ever Of late the priests have been gaining 
 
 great power ; and so much power have they in the 
 LTniversity now, that they have lately expelled the Vicar 
 of Wal'pfield as a class-book from the English classes, and 
 substituted Bacon's Essays in its stead. The Yicar of 
 Wakefield is a Protestant parson, and they cannot admit 
 such a man to be a model of virtue, and withal a married 
 man. Lord Bacon's first essay on " Unity in Religion " is 
 Catholic, and it justifies persecution of heretics. All this 
 was done before Louis Xapoleon's coup cVetat, and much 
 more will be done now, for the priests are creeping back, 
 and they have received £12,000,000 of the property that 
 
 was taken from them at the first Revolution One 
 
 of the first acts of the emancipated President was to restore 
 the Pantheon to the Church. But the Archbishop demurred : 
 the reason is obvious. It contains the bones of A^oltaire 
 
 and other infidels. He wants it purified I go to 
 
 Southfield on Thursday, where I always take my Christmas 
 dinner ever since they (the Garlands) went there eleven years 
 ago. I shall come home on Saturday, when I am to dine 
 with Borthwick, who advocates warmly Louis Xapoleon's 
 cause, from which it may be concluded that Palmerston is 
 friendly to it, for Borthwick sticks to Palmerston through 
 thick and thin.' 
 
AITOX'S EASTERN TRAVELS. 323 
 
 ' Cousins has now become a printer's-ink maker ; he has 
 discovered a new kind of ink that dries in two or three 
 minutes, and has no turpentine or any other spirit in it. He 
 
 is succeeding very well; it is taking amazingly 
 
 The ink-makers have already reduced their prices consider- 
 ably in order to compete with him.' He explains that 
 most printers are in the hands of the ink-makers — who are 
 the great capitalists — as the brewers control the publicans. 
 The state of his eyesight seems to have made him more 
 disposed to friendly intercourse, ' My health has been iTthDec. 
 pretty good, but my spirits have been fiat for a long time, james to 
 and my eyes are not good enough for constant reading, 
 especially by candle-light. So that of late I found it rather 
 a difficult matter to spend my evenings comfortably. I 
 generally spend one evening in the week with Doherty, and 
 
 occasionally I go to some evening party I see 
 
 Jock Alton has been publishing a book of travels in the 
 East. It is reviewed in the current number of Blackwood, 
 which you ought to read. Jock has been making a 
 triumphant entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey I 
 sujDpose, and dressed in white linen, with a turban on his 
 head and a huge cotton umbrella spread over him in one 
 hand, whilst the other was engaged picking wasps out of his 
 ears and his nose alternately, and his mouth, when he 
 opened it wide enough for their entrance, was filled with 
 winged vermin flying down his throat. Blackwood says 
 none but a member of Presbytery could have written the 
 book, and none but himself could have made it so amusing, 
 and withal so absurd.' 
 
 The danger of being attached solely to one periodical is 
 now being felt. ' I know nothing about the Herald getting gth Sept. 
 on, but I suppose much the same as ever. Biggs and I J^mes to 
 have little intercourse, and I often think he would like '^^^°- 
 to get rid of me. But this is merely a suspicion. I have 
 no special reason for thinking so. But I think a change will 
 come ere long, and I wish to be prepared for it. I daresay 
 
324 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 it is all right enough, for I have long felt that I have been 
 buried in the Herald. But there were good reasons for it, and 
 I am not blaming Biggs, for I believe he will act honourably, 
 but the paper itself does not furnish me with scope enough, 
 and I want another field of action.' This it was never his 
 fate to find or create. 
 
CHAPTER XXL 
 
 LADY LYTTON CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 We have seen that two of those who attended his early 
 lectures in London in opposition to MateriaHsm were Mrs 
 Wheeler and her daughter, afterwards Lady Bulwer 
 Lytton. The intimacy with Mrs Wheeler continued for 
 many years, although they seem never to have had much 
 real mental sympathy except in the joint effort to promote 
 what each considered the happiness of mankind, and, more 
 especially in her case, the emancipation of women, a subject 
 that always interested James Smith deeply. He acknow- 
 ledges to have learned much from this remarkable woman, 
 who introduced him to the advanced thought of the 
 time. 
 
 In the meantime the daughter married Bulwer Lytton, the 
 novelist, and very shortly thereafter commenced those mis- 
 understandings, and misconduct on the part of Bulwer Lytton, 
 which culminated in one of the great public scandals of the 
 period. Lady Lytton's letters to James Smith were brilliant 
 and voluminous, her intimacy with him having recom- 
 menced from seeking publicity for her wrongs in the 
 columns of the ^Family Herald,'' In page 602 of the 
 eighth volume, in answer to ' Rebecca,' the first part of the 
 story is summarised ; and to Rebecca {Miss Ryves) the first Miss Ryves. 
 letters of James Smith were written, not knowing at the 
 time who the lady was. The bulk of the correspondence 
 was destroyed by the late Dr. R. Angus Smith, into whose 
 hands James Smith's papers passed. His reason for their 
 
326 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 destruction was the atrocity of the revelations, and the fear 
 that they should one day be made public. He consequently 
 used afterwards to declare that no one held Lord Edward 
 Lytton Bulwer Lytton in more absolute contempt morally 
 than he did ; and yet no one had done more for his reputa- 
 tion ! The late Mr. William White, author of the Life 
 of Swedenborg, agreed with the present writer that the 
 letters were so witty, so clever, and so brilliant, that litera- 
 ture lost more than morality could gain by their suppression 
 — a matter of opinion ! It is always an invidious task to 
 publish private letters of any kind ; yet only by such letters 
 can the mind of the writer, when in dishabille, be seen; and 
 the private letters of Smith to strangers are so few that we 
 make no excuse for publishing his correspondence with one 
 of the most brilliant women of her time. If the reputation 
 of a great English classic should suffer in the course thereof, 
 it is merely what James Smith himself would have called a 
 ' fact,' — it is so ordered, — not an object. In his letters to my 
 father he is always so far in restraint, he is more a philoso- 
 pher discussing philosophy with a brother of the craft. With 
 Lady Lytton he is genial, good-humoured, and playful, with 
 an undercurrent of sadness which he cannot restrain. The 
 correspondence is sufficiently unrestrained, as, under the 
 peculiar circumstances of the case, it was almost bound to 
 become, seeing Lady Lytton's whole story turned on the 
 intercourse of the sexes. 
 11th Jan. ' Madame or Mademoiselle, — I return you the enclosed, with 
 
 To Rebecca, many thanks for your interesting but melancholy communi- 
 cations, but I hope you will pardon me for saying that I am 
 still at a loss to understand the subject. I can well imder- 
 stand how a man and his wife may separate for life, but it is 
 difficult to understand how a father, mother, and daughter 
 can be separated with such concomitant circumstances as 
 you describe. The daughter was turned out of doors by her 
 father : why did she not go to her mother's house ? Again, 
 the mother visited the dauditer in her last illness, and the 
 
LOVE IS A MONSTER. 327 
 
 mother was turned out of the daughter's miserable lodgings. 
 She must have been turned out by the father, or the father's 
 orders, for none but such a father could have been guilty of 
 such an act of cruelty. The father therefore had still kept 
 the supervision of his daughter : he in fact was the real 
 occupier of her lodgings, and exercised control over her and 
 her desolate home. It reminds one of the story of Beatrice 
 Cenci, of which Shelley has made such a heartrending use. 
 But the story of Beatrice is intelligible, whereas, so far as I 
 have yet learned that of Miss Lytton, I am at a loss to com- 
 prehend the relative position of father and child. 
 
 ' I did not doubt the truth of your story when I said, can 
 this be true ? — but feeling convinced that my readers would 
 naturally start such objections as I have just given expres- 
 sion to, I merely anticipated their doubt b}'' way of self- 
 defence. It is a melancholy and tragic story, the secret 
 details of which can only be known to the principal actors 
 of the drama — but love (including self-love) is at the bottom 
 of it all. Love is a monster when thwarted or disappointed, 
 or transformed into jealousy : it is the kindest or the most 
 cruel of all our passions ; and in proportion to its primitive 
 strength, will be its ultimate ferocity when once it is 
 corrupted. I believe that murder and suicide are more 
 frequently contemplated by love, and what was once love, 
 and still in fact is love on the rack, than by any other 
 passion. " Love is strong as death," says Solomon; "jealousy 
 cruel as the grave." What sort of man Sir E. is I know 
 not, I never saw him ; I know not whether he is tall or 
 short, stout or slender. But from what I have heard, he is a 
 vain man, and therefore selfish, and demands a monopoly of 
 respect, admiration, and affection. According to your last 
 letter, he was jealous even of his own infant, and would not 
 even share his wife's affection with it. He must have it all 
 to himself. I have no doubt that originally his love for Lady 
 B. was excessive, too much so to last — fretfully so — impatiently 
 so ; and not being able to mould her to his will, for such 
 
328 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 wills in general have no definite meaning, the angel of love 
 was transformed into a demon. This is very often the case. 
 My weekly correspondence reveals many frightful cases of 
 such transformation, too bad for publication. This demon he 
 seems to nourish, and in so doing has made a moral wreck 
 of his conjugal and paternal feelings. What poor things 
 education, philosophy, poetry, literature, and artistic taste 
 or aesthetics are for making men moral, good, and wise. 
 Bigotry is better, Quakerism is better : without religious 
 fear of some kind, that reverential fear that chastens the 
 spirit, refinement itself only tends to sensuality. Eeligion 
 has yet to be married to philosophy. They are at present 
 at variance : though man and wife by nature, they are at 
 present either living apart or quarrelling with each other. 
 " The marriage of the Lamb " has not yet come, that great or 
 universal marriage that unites the discordant elements of 
 society, and converts the two cross-keys of gentile Christi- 
 anity into one. Till then, society will be full of antagonism, 
 families full of discord ; and love, the noblest and even the 
 most prolific of all the passions, morally and intellectually, 
 tortured like a martyr. I have long been convinced of this 
 fact, and therefore compare religion with philosophy and 
 science in all my popular prelections, for some of the greatest 
 sensualists I ever met were irreligious philosophers and 
 men of taste. Man is not more fit for liberty than woman 
 is, but he has more of it, and a bad use he makes of it. A 
 stringent law of morals and inanners is sadly wanted, but 
 we have nothing but financial legislation at present; we 
 enjoy moral liberty. If I thought that the Komish confes- 
 sional were a good check upon private immorality, I should 
 not hesitate to advocate it. But it is not. That w^hich is 
 now whispered in the ear must be proclaimed on the 
 house-top. There is nothing so fearful as open shame ; and if 
 the law of honour were what it pretends to be, the man of 
 dishonour would be an outcast from society, however great 
 his wealth, his talent, or his patronage. 
 
lytton's self-abasement. 329 
 
 ' I fear I have written you an article instead of a letter. 
 — With kind regards to Lady Lytton, for my perhaps as yet 
 unintelligible behaviour to whom my memory often vexes 
 me, I remain, ' E. F.H.^ 
 
 'Madam, — I return you the enclosed letters which you2istJan. 
 
 ' '^ '^ IS.")!. 
 
 were so kind as to forward for my perusal. I understand To Rebecca, 
 
 Miss Rvves 
 
 the matter now much better than when I wrote you last, for, 
 as you must have observed, I had not then received your 
 last communication, and had no idea of the manner in which 
 Sir Edward had disposed of his children. I was very much 
 affected with his letter to his wife, — it seemed to me, whilst 
 reading it, such a full, free, and frank confession of the 
 wrong that he had done her. The total absence of all re- 
 crimination, also the self-abasement and humiliation, the 
 abhorrence of himself for what he had done, exhibited such 
 an appearance of genuine penitence, that I pitied the man, 
 and admired him for his candour. 
 
 ' But if he retracts and denies it all after he has written it, 
 why, then, I can make nothing of him, and suffer the 
 impression which he made to be effaced. His conduct in 
 the affair of Mrs. S. shows a heartlessness which I fear is 
 too common at present. I have seen quite enough of that 
 to disgust me. Married gentlemen, professed admirers of 
 chivalry, subduing their wives, I suppose, by ferocious curtain 
 lectures and threats, to permit them to use all sorts of 
 gallantries with gay ladies, such as kneeling at their feet, 
 kissing their hands, and even, if the young ladies will permit 
 it, laying their heads on their knees, whilst sitting on the 
 ground before them. The wives say nothing, but they do 
 not like it. I suppose it is some imaginary revival of 
 mediaeval chivalry, coming in hand-in-hand with, or rather 
 vis-a-vis to, Puseyism, as its licentious counterpart. The 
 scene you describe on the vessel is identical with scenes 
 that I have seen repeatedly, in silent meditation on the 
 character of the respective performers, and the training by 
 
vol. V 
 p. 602. 
 
 330 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 which they all had been respectively brought to do and to 
 tolerate such things. The Bible and the Pistol in your 
 description let one into the secret behind the curtain. As 
 if an effort were being made to debauch young men, fathers 
 will do such things before their sons. Youth is naturally 
 modest, but its warm passions are easily corrupted, especially 
 by the exam^Dle of elders. I have received one very strong 
 See F.iL, letter from a lady who calls herself Veritas, in reference to 
 the answer to Rebecca. It is painful for me to transcribe it, 
 but I think it my duty to do so, in order to show you what 
 a pickle I should soon be in were I to enter into such 
 personalities in the columns of a periodical. Who the lady 
 is I know not, but she says she knows Lady Lytton 
 perfectly, and she gives her a most [atrocious character. 
 Of course I do not believe her anonymous testimony, 
 nor would I believe it were it not anonymous, but I 
 give it to you verbatim, to shew you what a legion of 
 devils I might conjure up if I said much more about the 
 subject. I send you only a copy, but I will preserve the 
 original. 
 
 ' " Sir, — Having observed in your journal of the 18th the 
 mention of Rebecca's story in the notice to correspondents, 
 I can assure you, from a perfect knowledge of the lady in 
 question, that no faith can be placed in her statements. 
 The story of her daughter is a fabrication, though there are 
 circumstances connected with it sufficient to give a colouring 
 of truth to her assertion, but it is 'merely a thread of 
 candour with a web of wiles.' She drove her husband to 
 desperation by her violent temper, unfeminine propensities, 
 and outrageous conduct. In appearance she is not fit to be 
 admitted into decent society, in money matters she is 
 fraudulently dishonourable, and she has been well described 
 as a 'painted swindler.' If you love justice, you ought to 
 give publicity to this counter-statement, as the eminent 
 position of the husband, whom it is impossible not to 
 
SYMPATHY WITH CHILDREN. 331 
 
 recognise from the description, demands this reparation at 
 your hands. — I am, Sir, your obedient servant, a constant 
 reader, '"Veritas." 
 
 ' A female hand, fluent and somewhat dashing and careless. 
 Bold and self-possessed, she seems to be evidently a violent 
 partisan in the matter. I have answered her, but my 
 answer will not satisfy her. I fear I shall hear more from 
 her, and have to fight her in self-defence. 
 
 * Your invitation I have thought proper to decline accepting 
 at present. I may possibly come and see you both on some 
 future occasion, but not pending the present controversy. 
 Indeed, I somewhat fear it. I am not at all adapted by nature 
 for personalities, and have scrupulously avoided them all my 
 life ; my nerves and my presence of mind are not sufficiently 
 strong for them. I am sensitive, timid, retiring, and 
 solitary, and afraid both of giving and receiving offence. 
 But I believe I have heart enough always to sympathise 
 with the injured, especially with children. I cannot read 
 paragraphs in papers about children burnt or mutilated, or 
 cruelly used. Miss Lytton's story is to me much more 
 heartrending than Lady Lytton's, and yet I have no doubt 
 that Lady Lytton has suffered a hundredfold more. 
 
 'I leave it entirely to your discretion whether to show 
 Lady Lytton the letter I have transcribed or not. You 
 know best how she will receive it. But it is unnecessary to 
 put yourself to the trouble of a refutation, as I do not believe 
 it. It is too strong to be credited, and is, moreover, contra- 
 dicted by Sir Edward's own certificate of her character. 
 His letter alone is an unanswerable retort to all such 
 malicious insinuations against her. — I am, yours, tfec. 
 
 'E. f.h: 
 
 * Madam, — I do not know Mr. Hyde, but as I have 
 
 no doubt whatever of the truth of Lady Lytton's statements 
 respecting her husband's behaviour, I do not require any con- 
 
382 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 firmation. Sir Edward's conduct has been infamous, even 
 supposing him to have received the greatest provocation 
 which a lady of Lady Lytton's character, education, and 
 position in Hfe could possibly have given to a man. But 
 according to his own acknowledgment, that provocation was 
 not given. Till I saw that letter I thought it probable that 
 Lady Lytton, being a spirited woman, might, as women often 
 do, have expended her wit and resentment, or even jealousy, 
 upon him in a very provoking manner. But his own confes- 
 sion puts a negative on all these suspicions, which are very 
 natural. Though not a married man myself, I have seen 
 and heard, and read weekly almost in my correspondence, 
 quite enough to enlighten me upon that subject. I have 
 shown the letters to several friends of both sexes. They all 
 condemn him, the ladies especially. But one married man, 
 whose wife bothers him a little, remarked, after a frank 
 acknowledgment that Sir E.'s conduct was most atrocious, 
 " But I don't know: some women are enough to drive a man 
 mad. You don't know them, you don't know them," — and 
 he shook his head most mournfully. However, that has 
 nothing to do with the case of the children. I shall have 
 no objection to see Mr. Hyde if it be necessary for me to 
 take further notice of the matter. But I do not suppose I 
 shall hear more of it, and I do not think it would be advis- 
 able in Lady Lytton to push it into notoriety by such a 
 channel. I think it would be better to be quiet for a little. 
 — With kind regards to Lady Lytton, I remain, yours, &c., 
 
 29th April *My Dear Lady Lytton, — After so many letters have 
 
 T?Lady passed between us, I think it a very foolish thing in me to 
 Lytton. preserve my incognito any longer. I felt disposed to make 
 an exception in favour of your Ladyship at the first, but the 
 force of habit and a general indifference to the formation of 
 new acquaintances prevailed, and led me to treat you as an 
 ordinary correspondent. It was not, however, because I 
 
'THE peer's daughter/ 333 
 
 regarded you in that light, for I had many reasons both of 
 personal respect for yourself and for the memory of your 
 mother to single you out as one who was entitled to any 
 confidence and service it was in my power to bestow. I 
 always meant some day to break silence, but the day was 
 put off by a sort of fatality so very long, that had you not 
 of late renewed our acquaintanceship, I should, from pure 
 shame, have kept silence for ever. You perhaps remember 
 directing my attention to a piece of poetry of yours in BelVs 
 Weeldy Messenger. AVell, I never was able to procure a 
 sight of it. I told the shopman at the office to procure the 
 paper for me ; he deferred doing so till Saturday or Monday, I 
 forget which, then it was all sold off. I told him then to 
 procure it at any price, and he employed several newsvenders 
 to look for a copy in coffee-houses or anywhere, but none 
 could be found. It seems almost incredible, but such was 
 the fact. Mr. Biggs also, the publisher and proprietor of 
 the Family Herald, did his utmost, and sent to several coffee- 
 houses in the neighbourhood, but not a copy could be 
 procured, and I never saw it. A similar fatality attended The Peer's 
 the Peer's Daughter. Not being connected with any circulat- fsS?''*^^' " 
 ing library, I sent our servant out to several in the neigh- LaJy ^^ 
 bourhood, but all in vain. I then gradually fell into another Lytton. 
 train of thought, and calmly waited an opportunity. The 
 whole affair, however, has annoyed me considerably, and has, 
 in fact, become one of the permanent stings by w^hicli my 
 repose is at times disturbed and my conscience troubled. 
 Moreover, it is of no use for you to forgive me, even if you 
 could, for the punishment of sin is eternal, and I think if I 
 had exerted myself more I might have succeeded. 
 
 * Having settled this old bill, I come down the stream of 
 time to more recent matters. I am just reading your auto- 
 biography, and am delighted as well as surprised with the 
 talent it displays. It exceeds my expectations. But as I 
 have not yet finished it, I shall not enter at present into 
 details. I am only in the second volume. I read the first 
 
334 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALIST. 
 
 more than a week ago, but before I could begin the second 
 I had a visit from a nephew on his way to India, or rather 
 Manilla, and I had to walk, ride, or drive about with him to 
 show him the lions and lionesses, and then to accompany 
 him to Southampton, where he embarked for Alexandria on 
 board the " Ripon " on Easter Sunday. From Southampton 
 I went to Salisbury, and heard divine service in the 
 cathedral on the same day, and then I came home to my 
 usual avocations. In a day or two, however, I was reminded 
 of a promise to visit some friends in Kent. So off by train 
 af^ain I went for three days, and returned on Saturday last, and 
 then I found, in addition to my public correspondence, some 
 special ones that begged for private answers, &c. jSTot to tire 
 your patience out with this uninteresting gossip, suffice it to 
 say that with all this surplus of employment, I have not 
 been able to get beyond the middle of the second volume. 
 The three volumes, however, were read in as many days by a 
 young lady who picked it up on my table. I must now tell 
 you who I myself am — Nobody. I belong to no sect or party 
 in Church or State, and have no heart to Avork with or for 
 any of them. I both hate and love them. I am misanthropist 
 and philanthropist, and I include myself in my hatred as 
 well as others, for I am not at all satisfied with myself. I 
 am a Scotchman by birth and descent, and belong to the 
 greatest family in the world — the family of the Smiths, 
 the superlative greatness of which was never, I believe, 
 disputed till within the last few months, when a feeble and 
 paltry attempt was made to set up the Jones-es as rivals, 
 they being merely a Welsh family, and not universal as 
 ours is, or rather as " my family" is. I was educated for the 
 Kirk, and am a licentiate of the Established Church of 
 Scotland, therefore entitled by courtesy to the epithet of 
 Reverend — as John Russel, gent, to that of Lord. I don't 
 care much for my titles, but I preserve them notAvithstanding, 
 for they are passports in society. In addition to this 
 antecedent title, I have a postcedent one, which I obtained 
 
WHO JAMES SMITH IS ! 335 
 
 by undergoing successfully an examination by five or six 
 Professors in black geneva gowns, concluding ^yiih. an instal- 
 lation, in Avhich my head was surmounted by a black velvet 
 cap, not unlike the one in which judges are wont to condemn 
 murderers to be hanged. This ceremony authorised me to 
 put M.A. after my name. That is all I have to boast of. 
 
 'Being thus spiritually allied to John Calvin, you may 
 perhaps imagine that I was not well pleased with the liberties 
 which you and your worthy uncle have taken with John's 
 reputation. But I am quite indifferent about John's re- 
 nown, and have not hesitated myself to give him a kick, as I 
 passed, for his bigotry and intolerance. I should be very 
 sorry to live under John's reign, or anything resembling it. 
 And though the modern Church of Scotland is very different 
 in spirit from Calvin, though falsely professing to hold by 
 the letter of his doctrine, yet there is so much in the Church 
 of Scotland of what is common to all religious sects, namely, 
 of injustice in respect to the doctrine of sin and Divine 
 judgment, that I conscientiously resolved to preach myself 
 out of it by preaching the doctrine of universal redemption. 
 I did so for two years, got the name of a heretic, and quietly 
 escaped from my native land, and have never since visited it. 
 I left it, however, without a moral spot upon my character ; 
 my only reproach was that of heresy. 
 
 ' I came to London just to see what Providence would do 
 for me. I commenced lecturing, and one day after a lecture 
 your mother waited and introduced herself, and this was 
 only a short time before I first saw you. I was for many 
 years a bit of a favourite with your mother : she often sent 
 for me, and many a letter I have received from her. I have 
 even preserved some, though I generally burn all the letters 
 I receive. At last a sort of coldness arose between us. I 
 had always found fault with her tendency to Materialism; and 
 she often acknowledged that Faith, if one could have it, was 
 a great acquisition, and very often, in her happier moods of 
 mind, I found her reconciled to the idea of religion as I 
 
336 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 presented it before her, and she often said that if anyone 
 could make a Christian of her it would be myself. But then, 
 again, the philosophical spirit once more prevailed, and 
 uttered eloquent invectives against everything that assumed 
 the form of religion ; then she murmured and complained, 
 and then I reminded her that philosophy was of little value 
 if it could not give repose to the mind under affliction, and 
 then she became angry, and upbraided and reproached me as 
 a sample of all other men-tyrants and monsters — we often 
 fell out in this way, and became friends again. But on one 
 occasion I deeply offended her, and she resented it more 
 than usual, not only in a strong and powerfully written 
 letter, but with a viva voce upbraiding when we met. I felt 
 wounded by the treatment, which I thought too severe ; and 
 though we parted friends, I resolved not to go back again 
 until she sent for me. She never did. She changed her 
 residence soon after and went far away, where I never saw 
 her. She was a remarkable woman, and her children could 
 scarcely fail to be possessors of great talent. Moreover, 
 though I never could adopt her philosophical notions of 
 creation and destiny, I am deeply indebted to her for 
 directing my attention to social questions such as Owenism, 
 St. Simonism, and Fourierism, and introducing me to gentle- 
 men with whom I conferred upon these subjects, and thus 
 became initiated into many of the mysteries of popular 
 philosophy, to which I had been previously an utter 
 stranger, but which have since been indispensable to qualify 
 me for my own individual mission as a public writer. 
 Indeed, I always regard my introduction to Mrs. Wheeler as 
 a most important providential epoch in my life. 
 
 ' I have now lived eighteen years in London, supporting 
 myself chiefly by my pen. Being isolated, having lost caste, 
 like Joseph, by parting from old brethren, and not having 
 found new ones, I determined to live a single life, for my 
 heart could never bear the idea of entailing any of my own 
 reproach upon a woman, or suffering, reproach from one for 
 
LOVE UNREALISABLE HERE. 337 
 
 thinking differently from other men. So that unless God 
 created a woman on purpose for me, I felt that marriage was 
 not for me. But I have all my life entertained the most 
 exalted ideas of Love, so much so as to make a religion of it. 
 Even heaven itself I regard as a state in which love 
 between the sexes will be realised and perfected, and surpass 
 even all that imagination can conceive. And since my 
 liberation from church creeds, I have found revelation 
 speaking a new language, and the book opening itself to my 
 mind and revealing wonderful but secret things — things 
 almost unutterable, but true. I have been, upon the whole, 
 well rewarded for my heresy; and though the ladies know 
 nothing of me personally, and but little of my opinions, for 
 I cannot freely speak out, yet it seems that my spirit has 
 some attraction for them, for I daresay few of my sex, not 
 even Catholic confessors excepted, have more correspondence 
 with " British females " than I have. Do not, however, let 
 any wicked thoughts enter into your head, for I have never 
 seen one of them personally. It is all in spirit. Love can 
 not be realised in this world. Even when a young man I 
 believed this, and did not attempt to realise it. And now 
 that I am an old bachelor, I should only be a fool to try it. 
 One of the greatest blessings of heaven is love, and it is 
 only there that men and women will thoroughly enjoy one 
 another, and bless God for making man double. There is 
 a curse upon this world. It is merely a school of evil for 
 juvenile training. Our home is in heaven, where we shall 
 all go very soon. 
 
 * " A few short years of evil past, 
 We reach that happy shore, 
 Where death-divided friends at last 
 Shall meet to part no more." 
 
 * Hoping that I have not entirely exhausted your patience 
 with this long letter, I remain, your Ladyship's most obt., 
 
 'J. E. Smith.' 
 z 
 
338 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 *I certainly admire the Amazon for the intensity and 
 eagerness of expression, and the natural ease and determina- 
 tion of attitude. I have not minutely examined it all, and 
 therefore am not aware of the errors you speak of, except 
 perhaps in the loins, which are masculine-looking. It is not 
 intended for a beauty. I therefore did not look for 
 feminine beauty, but a sort of masculine femininity. It is a 
 brazen kiss, as you observe — in more senses, however, than 
 one, as it is a kiss for sale. Brass for brass, old brass for 
 new, as the young lassie said when she married the rich old 
 man. The veiled nuns are beautiful. They were something 
 
 new to me 
 
 fedkv^ 'I have just read the notice in Bell's New Weekly 
 
 1851 Messenger. It is very good and very clever. The writer 
 
 has taken a most judicious as well as friendly view of the 
 book. I still hope, however, that notwithstanding all your 
 personal grievances, you will forget them in your next book 
 (if too great an effort, let it be a short one ; bottle up your 
 gall and vinegar, and make 'preserves instead of idckles. I 
 should like you to do this, both for present and posthumous 
 fame. I am not at all sorry that the programme has been 
 published. But I would rather that some one else had 
 done it. So long as your Ladyship fights so valiantly in 
 your o^vn cause, it is impossible for a champion ever to come 
 forward. Such a programme would prove a shield for the 
 foe, and ward off a thousand cowps cfepee and barbed arrows. 
 But, of course, you know the men and the matters better 
 than I do, and have made your resolution. I know them 
 not, and never shall ; their sphere is not my sphere. I am not 
 a reader either of old plays or new ones, nor an admirer of 
 men who think there is any greatness or evidence of genius 
 in playing the parts either of fashionable roues, soft-pates, or 
 sneaks. Much sickening stuff is written about actors, who 
 occupy a position in the columns of the press which they are 
 not well entitled to; and literary men who are fond of 
 notoriety, in my humble opinion, lower the dignity of their 
 
'MIRIAM SEDLEY.' 339 
 
 calling as public instructors by playing the parts of the 
 vilest of men. Why do play-writers always select rogues, 
 blacklegs, sneaks, doodles, dodgers, and such wretches 
 for their principal characters? Is it because they cannot 
 sketch the character of gentlemen, or because the public do 
 not admire their likeness? Johnson said of Garrick that 
 he could play every character but a gentleman. I should like 
 to see any of the Devonshire strolling band attempt such a 
 part. I suppose the playwright has judiciously refrained 
 from introducing a gentleman into the piece. It is curious 
 that he should have selected such a low, vagabond set of 
 characters expressly for literary men to represent. It was 
 no compliment to them, however judicious for him. — With 
 kind regards to Miss Ryves, whom I had almost again called 
 Rebecca, I remain, yours Jacobitically, ' James Smith. 
 
 ' I have made a few short extracts from Miriam Sedleij 
 as I go along, and one, I hope, will appear in the ensuing 
 number. If I can find a long episode, I will extract it. 
 That about Goldsmith's cuffs seems at present very suitable. 
 It is admirably told, and will be generally interesting. I 
 think it is partly historical If I mistake not, there is 
 something resembling it in Irving's Life of Goldsmith, only 
 not so copious, graphic, and rich with detail. But I have 
 not the book at hand to compare them. I have said a few 
 words after one of the extracts, by way of commendation. 
 I hope, however, to find some other and better opportunity 
 of recommending it. I am glad to see that it sells well.' 
 
 * My Dear Lady Lytton, — I received your kind letter in 2nd May 
 due season, with its interesting contents, which I w^ill restore To'^Lady 
 to you when I have the pleasure of shaking hands with you, ^5'"°°- 
 which I hope to have on Sunday evening, if by that time 
 you are so fortunate as to have got rid of your troublesome 
 visitor. I shall be very happy also to see Rebecca, and then 
 you will be the first two correspondents of the Family 
 
340 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 Herald of whom I have made the personal acquaintance. 
 ofE^*^^^ But I once corresponded with two ladies almost weekly for 
 •Shepherd.' fiye years before I became acquainted with them. 
 
 ' I am not at all afraid of meeting anyone. I put you 
 under no restrictions whatsoever, and give you no secrets to 
 keep. A man who cannot keep his own secrets has no right 
 to impose them on other people, more especially on ladies, 
 who are reputedly fond of proclaiming them. 
 
 'I hope you will not be very severe on old ladies, but 
 prepare yourself for learning the wisdom that old-ladyship 
 is well calculated to teach when it comes upon you. I am 
 quite clear of all slander or disrespectful language spoken or 
 written against them. I am sometimes severe on old 
 
 bachelors, but not upon old ladies, married or single 
 
 Moreover, I decidedly prefer the spirit of amiable old ladies 
 to that of old politicians. Even their superstition is more 
 venerable and poetical than politics, and their religion, at 
 the worst, is more moral in its tendency than that mongrel 
 philosophy of modern times which attempts to improve on 
 the philosophy of the ancients by robbing it of its virtue. 
 Woman has a splendid destiny in reserve for her. I have 
 often reasoned myself into a wish that I were a woman. 
 She was last created, and is therefore the pinnacle of 
 creation, — the last shall be first, and the first last. ]\Ian will 
 be her servant and not her master in the reign of eternal 
 chivalry. Be patient and wait in faith and hope. 
 Novel. * I am delighted to hear that you have treated the question 
 
 of pre-existence in the Peer's Daughter, — so much the 
 greater treat is reserved for me. There is much to favour 
 it in the whole spirit and tenor of the Law of Moses. 
 Pierre Leroux, a French socialist and singularly CathoKc 
 writer, advocates it with great talent. 
 
 ' The Times gave Sir Edward a contemptuous brush 
 with its wing as it passed him the other day. Literature 
 certainly requires reform as much as religion or politics. 
 All the w^orld requires it together.: we all want a moral tiger 
 
NEWMAN'S MYSTIFICATION. 341 
 
 to lick us into shape. The wrong is universal ; not here or 
 there, but everywhere. It is the School of Evil. It is our 
 duty to fight against it even to the last. — I have only now 
 to say, I remain your Ladyship's servant, ' J. E. Smith.' 
 
 ' My Dear Lady Lytton, — I am extremely obliged to you 
 for directing my attention to the little paragraph from New- 
 man's lecture, and also for sending me the lecture itself, 2.5th July 
 which I herewith return along with the six stamps, as I 
 consider myself the debtor and not the creditor. I had not 
 even noticed the paragraph. We have the son of a clergy- 
 man of the Church of England constantly engaged on the 
 paper, and he supplies the most of the small paragraphs, 
 picked up by reading. I believe him to be very impartial 
 in so doing ; when he errs it must be by being too hasty. 
 ]N'ow, I cannot blame him in this matter, although he has not 
 stated the case as it might be stated. He could not go into 
 all the details, so he chose the most unexceptionable mode 
 of stating the case. After reading the lecture, I cannot 
 convince myself that Newman has acted honestly. He 
 represents the speech as in the first place a supposition of 
 his own — indeed both speaker and speech are represented as 
 suppositions ; then he pretends to find, apropos, a fact in a 
 private correspondence which converts his supposition into 
 a reality ; and then he gives his supposed speech " as it may 
 he supposed to stand in the morning j/ri7itJ' A most disin- 
 genuous piece of mystification, which I suppose he justifies by 
 means of his newly-adopted Jesuitical casuistry. I have put 
 three gentle pencil-crosses on pages 24 and 25, to which I 
 call your attention. They can be easily erased with a piece 
 of india-rubber. It would be more to Newman's honour if, 
 instead of inventing such puerile absurdities, he were to 
 attempt a serious answer to such books as Elliot's Ho7'3e 
 Apocalypticse, in which the whole subject of the pro- 
 phetical numbers and symbols is treated historically, legiti- 
 mately, and seriously. But Catholics are afraid to touch 
 
342 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 upon these subjects, and they make much more impression 
 upon their own flock by merely laughing at them. I^ewman 
 seems to be losing his logical faculties, or he would not have 
 adduced the story of the two knights in pages 4 and 5, for 
 the story tells against himself. If the two knights found 
 themselves wrong at last, so should Protestants and Catholics, 
 as I firmly believe they will. But according to Father 
 Newman, the Catholics must find themselves right. It is a 
 singular specimen of the argumentum ad ahsurdum, such as 
 one might expect from Hanwell Asylum, or any other 
 curative hospital for iUogical controversialists. 
 
 'However, a correspondent has just sent the paragraph, as 
 your Ladyship has done, making some enquiries about it, 
 and I will state the case as it is. I should be very sorry to 
 do injustice to any man, the more so as I do not belong to 
 either party, and have sympathies and antipathies with and 
 to them both, 
 stratharen. ' I have been so dragged about of late with friends from the 
 country that I am become quite a vagabond. I have met 
 eleven persons from the village where I was at school in 
 Scotland, and at present I have my elder brother and his 
 wife staying with me, and this is the first day's solitude I 
 have had since Wednesday. They are just gone out for 
 the first time without me. I begged to be excused, not from 
 unwillingness to go, for I am very glad to see them (my 
 sister-in-law I have not seen for nineteen years), but I must 
 make up for lost time, that I may go out with them the next 
 time with the clearer conscience. 
 
 'Your little story of "Mary Horneck" is very interesting : it 
 would have made a nice little appendage to that of the "Lace 
 Ruffles." But yoa may find an opportunity of introducing 
 it in some other manner. I hope you are proceeding right 
 merrily and successfully with your tragedy, and that you 
 will give us a little fun in it like Shakespeare, and not make 
 it so demure as those of Racine and Corneille, although I 
 must confess that the taste of the latter is more correct in 
 
TROUBLED WITH HIS EAR, 343 
 
 that respect. I was amusing myself, before I was inter- 'Buic^sar's 
 rupted by my visitors, by writing a little conceit, which seems Never 
 to be swelling unintentionally into a volume. It is called p^ ^ ® • 
 " The Handwriting on the Wall." The scene is laid at Rome, 
 at a banquet given by Bulcaesar. The Handwriting is a 
 curious mystical fact in the history of England, never before 
 perceived by mortal man, and known only to myself. After 
 appearing amid numerous mysterious concomitants in which 
 the destiny of woman seems particularly concerned, it 
 becomes the subject of discussion of the banquet, and each 
 party is allowed (for the day) the utmost liberty of speech. 
 What may come out of it I know not, but I become 
 more and more interested in it as I proceed, and I 
 should prefer working at it by express, to driving and 
 walking amid the wildernesses of modern society, in which 
 my heart takes but little interest. The singing still 
 continues in my left ear : it matters not, quod est optimum est 
 — or at least it will be good at last, if not now. I have 
 applied to a physician. He thinks it will go by degrees if 
 well protected from draughts. — I am glad to hear of 
 Rebecca's welfare. Remember me kindly to her, and believe 
 me, yours sincerely, *J. Smith.' 
 
 That Smith was not alone in his views of ITewman may 
 be noted in Abbott's Antidote against Credulity. ' State- 
 ments which appear to Mr. R. H. Hutton so very true as to 
 be truisms, and to Professor Huxley so very false as to be 
 almost insolent, Mr. Abbott tries to show are indeed true, 
 so very true that they would be scarcely deserving of 
 deliberate examination if they were not almost always used 
 by Newman in such a context as to suggest, a little later on, 
 some other and quite different statement, which, besides being 
 not a truism, is also not true.' 
 
 * My Dear Lady Ly tton, — I ought to have thanked you long sth Aug. 
 ere this for the two pamphlets which you had the kindness 
 
344 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 to send me, but I have been quite surrounded with brothers, 
 sister, and nephew, four constant visitors, besides now and 
 then a friend or two of theirs. The change is somewhat 
 stunning, as the rising generation are in the habit of saying ; 
 and I sometimes long just for one day to myself, but I can 
 scarcely say that I have had even one for the last month. 
 However, I think it has been of some physical advantage to 
 me. It is perhaps quite as good as a trip to the Continent 
 for a fortnight, or a tour through the provinces of England 
 and Wales. 
 
 ' I have read all the lectures you have sent me of the 
 apostate Newman, and I must allow that he speaks many 
 truths against the Protestants. But I should rather hear 
 them from some one else than from him. I never like 
 apostates who attack their old friends and associates, or the 
 Church from which they have separated, nor do I like that 
 one-sided devotion which throws the mantle of charity 
 over its own connexion, and becomes the merciless accuser 
 of all other corporations but its own. Newman is an 
 idolatrous worshipper of episcopal infallibility. With him, 
 as with Henry of Exeter, " there is no Church without a 
 bishop," and that bishop means a prelate, a lord, who 
 governs both temporarily and spiritually if he can. He 
 even worships corruption if the Church accepts and 
 approves of it, for he believes his corporation of bishops can 
 do no wrong. This is much greater blasphemy that the 
 English notion of Royal impeccability. Our Queen does 
 no wrong, because she is not responsible for what is royally 
 done, and what is done may be undone; but the Roman 
 Church is morally responsible for its own doings, and it 
 never, like the British Government, amends or reforms 
 itself, but doggedly maintains its own infallibility, in direct 
 opposition to all experience and common sense. 
 
 ' Much that NeAvman says about clerical marriage is true. 
 I should not make it a rule for clergymen not to marry, 
 but I think a church is the better of a choir of unmarried 
 
NEWMAN TOO PARTIZAN. 345 
 
 ministers of both sexes ; and as for moral conduct, although 
 that is a secret subject, on which few can speak positively, I 
 am decidedly of opinion that unmarried men in general, 
 both lay and clerical, are more chaste than married men are. 
 My own observation has long since led me to this conclusion, 
 and on one occasion it was confirmed in the most decided 
 manner in my hearing by a physician of very great 
 experience. He said that married men were decidedly the 
 most unchaste. There are habits of chastity as well as of 
 smoking and chewing, and once acquired they become a 
 second nature. One half of the world knows little of the 
 other, but I must assert, for it is a truth, that the most 
 obscene conversation, the most impure jesting and punning 
 that I have ever heard in my life, has always come from 
 married men. Indeed, the unmarried men of my acquaint- 
 ance are particularly pure, but several of my married friends 
 I positively fear because of their tendency to utter impure 
 jests. Judging also from personal experience, I find that a 
 sort of feminine sense of delicacy and propriety naturally 
 grows upon a bachelor, for he feels that society entertains a 
 suspicion of him, and he becomes as timid and sensitive as a 
 woman. For this reason I have always defended the 
 Roman priests from the accusations of Protestants, admit- 
 ting always of many exceptional cases, which, accord- 
 ing to the old saying, are ever indispensable to prove the 
 rule. 
 
 ' I should like Newman much better if he would candidly 
 admit that in some respects Protestantism is better than 
 Catholicism. But this he dares not do, if even disposed to 
 do it. His church would not suffer him. He must praise 
 his friends and damn his enemies, — a most unchristian spirit, 
 but a genuine sectarian spirit. He speaks with ludicrous 
 indignation and sorrow of a nine months' persecution in 
 England of a set of men who, if they had as much power 
 over us as we have over them, would fine us, imprison us, 
 gag us, and torture us without mercy, as they do in their 
 
346 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 own Roman capital at this day, — persecution in a country 
 which he is freely abusing with tongue and pen, — in a 
 country where no censorship exists, and where he may 
 publish with impunity the most acrimonious diatribes 
 against the Established Church, and the most wanton abuse 
 or ridiculous caricatures of its worship and its priesthood. 
 The great fault of England and of every other country is 
 the want of the true spirit of persecution. Every good 
 moral government ought to be a persecuting government. 
 It ought to persecute moral evil. It ought to punish moral 
 evil without mercy, first and most severely in its chief 
 ministers, its Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and all its 
 dignitaries, and lastly and least severely in those who are 
 tempted by want and misfortune to commit crime. 
 
 ' But persecution has never in any country taken the proper 
 direction. It generally attacks the weak, and shows in- 
 dulgence to the strong : a king, a prince, a grand duke, or a 
 great landed proprietor, in Italy as in England, may with 
 perfect impunity commit daily breaches of almost all the 
 decalogue, and run amuck upon morality and common 
 decency, if he merely show a ceremonial respect to the 
 priesthood, and go through the forms of acquiescence in the 
 reign apostolical. Dogma is all in all ; and persecution, like 
 all other apostate spirits in this world, instead of venting its 
 wrath upon that which is morally evil, expends all its indig- 
 nation upon that which is only intellectually heretical. Perse- 
 cution is perfectly legitimate. I long to see the day when the 
 reign of persecution will begin in right earnest. But that 
 will not be in Rome, for Rome will never persecute herself ; 
 and the persecution which does not persecute Rome is not 
 of the right sort. 
 
 ' I am happy to hear that you derive so much pleasure from 
 writing your tragedy, and that it proceeds so rapidly 
 towards its completion. I hope you have now recovered 
 from your indisposition. Had I been a lady I should have 
 called to see you, and if I had had a carriage I should have 
 
WRITING KEEPS ME AWAKE. 347 
 
 sent it to inquire. But as I am a British male, minus a 
 carriage, I did nothing but wish your speedy recovery, for in 
 truth I am very much fatigued, and withal so sleepy that I 
 cannot read. Writing keeps me awake, but I fear I have in- 
 flicted a soporific upon you with this long letter in royal 
 octavo. — "With kind remembrances to Rebecca, I remain, 
 yours faithfully, 'J.Smith.' 
 
 * My Dear Lady Lytton, — I forgot in my last letter to Sept. 27, 
 answer two items in your former epistle. They occurred to 
 
 my mind as soon as I had sent it off to the letter-box. In 
 the first place, the poetry is very good, and I will send it to 
 the printer to fill up a corner at discretion. In the second 
 place, " The Handwriting on the Wall " is nearly finished, 
 but what to do with it then I have not determined. I am 
 afraid it is too original ; and though there be much plain 
 wisdom in it, there is much wildness, and not a little that 
 will give great offence. Now, as the Master Teacher says : 
 "It must needs be that offences come, but woe unto that 
 man by whom they come ; it were better for him that a mill- 
 stone were hung about his neck and be cast into the sea.'' 
 The penalty, therefore, seems somewhat alarming. But I do 
 not mean to think any more about it till I return from 
 Scotland. 
 
 * As for my misogamy, you suspected it, did you ? But do 
 not misapprehend it. It is impossible for man to hate 
 woman in the absolute, and every man must be attracted 
 towards woman in some mode or other. But he may have 
 his preferences. He may prefer this mode to that, and his 
 mode may be better or worse than the average. The average 
 is marriage. Below the average is debauchery. Instead of 
 the average, it may be called the standard for this world. 
 But it is merely for time, a temporary expedient, not for 
 eternity. Therefore says the Great Teacher, "in heaven 
 they neither marry nor are given in marriage," for there 
 love is perfectly free. Sexual love too — perfect sexual love. 
 
348 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 That is my idea of heaven. So far I am a pure Mahometan. 
 But as I not only admit the equality of the sexes in that 
 perfect state, but the precedence of women, as the last created 
 and therefore the top or apex of creation, I do not agree with 
 Mr. Mahomet in giving so many female attendants to one 
 man. That was merely an Eastern adaptation, suitable for 
 the time and place of the Kevelation. Heaven is love, pure 
 and perfect between man and woman. JS'ow, when I was a 
 young man, and was mentally engaged in elaborating my 
 analogical theology, I used to have such beatific visions of 
 this sort of love, that I looked with a sort of contempt on 
 earthly love,^ and especially upon reproductive love that 
 brings forth children, and even now I look with pity on 
 those who have children. This idea of generation led me to 
 re-generation as its successor, and this led me to look with 
 contempt on those puerile notions of re-generation which 
 make it consist in water baptism, a mere phantom. Genera- 
 tion is the curse of sexual love, and re-generation is its 
 blessing. My love, then, for woman was chiefly transferred 
 to the world beyond this one : so great was my faith, that 
 the hope of its future enjoyment was a sort of half reality. 
 Of course, I could not communicate such feelings to others. 
 It was a spiritual world, in which I must walk alone. But 
 it let me into some of the secrets of the olden monks, who 
 attempted to realise it with the mens ! I never had such a 
 chance, and besides my principles taught me that it could 
 not be realised, for it requires a new body, and that new 
 body I even found mysteriously described in Scripture. 
 Living in this ideal world, apparently indifferent to the 
 female sex, but in reality adoring them in spirit more 
 perhaps than, or at least as much as, any other living man, I 
 have kept clear of the yoke, like the Founder of the Church, 
 and some of his leading apostles, and indeed the greatest of 
 all the genuine Saints of the Christian Era. I have deter- 
 
 ^ By this expression, and ' generation,' he refers to carnal love in 
 place of spiritual communion, to which alone he aspired. 
 
A MORAL TYRANNY. 349 
 
 mined rather to wait for the best and richest of all loves 
 than bother myself much with the worst. 
 
 ' Kow, I think it will be no easy matter for you to prove 
 me a woman-hater. In one sense I am both man-hater and 
 woman-hater, for I have been so much in the habit of 
 thinking of both as what they should be, rather than as 
 what they really are, that I am very difficult to please, and 
 cannot find anyone to come up to my standard. But I am 
 fully more displeased with myself than with others, for I am 
 all wrong together, every inch of me. 
 
 ' Your lot seems to have fallen amongst a very bad set of 
 men. I have little knowledge of such devils as you describe. 
 I know many pure-minded men, who never gave utterance 
 to an impure thought. I was reared amongst such men, 
 under very severe discipline. But then the purity was 
 produced by bigotry, which was a great evil, a tyranny, but 
 a moral tyranny. Though I have lost my bigotry, and in 
 fact always protested against its excess, I have a respect for 
 its moral influence. I suppose I never once in my whole 
 life gave utterance to a profane oath, and my speech has 
 always been free from obscenity, immodesty, or indelicacy, 
 scrupulously free, so that I even hate it, and have often 
 thrown down Shakespeare because my feelings were irritated 
 by it. I have even envied those that could read it. I have 
 actually tried to overcome the weakness, and cannot; and yet, 
 what is apparently inconsistent with this, I have written 
 letters to friends which, if discovered and published, would 
 look almost as obscene as Deus' Theology — analogical letters 
 to theologians, treating of the spiritual analogies of the 
 whole human body. These letters I wrote in pure faith, 
 but a person reading them without faith would give me 
 credit for pure lasciviousness. 
 
 ' So little is one person qualified to judge of another, I 
 often say with St. Paul I will not suffer myself to be judged 
 by any man or woman. He who judge th me is the Lord, 
 and for a similar reason I do not feel much disposed to 
 
350 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 judge other peojDle. We are all mysteries to one another, 
 great mysteries. We cannot even reveal our own secret to 
 each other — words are insufficient even if we felt disposed. 
 
 * But the greatest comfort in this world is to be found in a 
 strong religious faith : any religion is better than none. But 
 faith will not make us agreeable to each other; it often 
 makes us quite the reverse. Charity tempers it, purifies it, 
 and polishes and teaches good manners, without which good 
 morals are of little avail for private happiness. I mean to 
 leave London by the evening mail train on Monday. — With 
 kind remembrances to Rebecca, I remain, your Ladyship's 
 most obedient, ' J. E. Smith. 
 
 * My trip will last three weeks.' 
 
 * My Dear Lady Lytton, — I have now returned in safety 
 from my native land, having visited Auld Reekie, and stood 
 upon the top of Arthur's Seat, seen Mons Meg, and peeped 
 into the filthy closes of the Cowgate and the Canongate, 
 stood also on the shores of Loch Lomond, ascended Mount 
 Misery which overlooks the loch, and found my way at 
 last as far as Dunkeld, where I visited the Hall of Ossian, 
 as a modern tea or coffee house is called which looks into a 
 waterfall. 
 
 * I felt very much refreshed with my native air, drank a 
 goodly amount of Scotch toddy, and took one potation of 
 Athole brose at the peremptory request of an old lady, who 
 assured me, I suppose from her own experience, that I 
 should find the comfort of it when climbing the hills. I 
 had good weather, good health, and kind friends, and saw 
 many faces which I had not seen for twenty years. I was 
 surprised at the little change which time had made upon 
 some of them, and they were as much surprised at the 
 preservation of my identity, for though a little, that is a 
 deal, stouter, as one of your heroines would say, I was 
 identically myself notwithstanding. 
 
'THE SCHOOL FOR HUSBANDS.' 351 
 
 ' I think my health is somewhat improved by my trip, if I 
 can only preserve it so till I take another, but my ears are 
 much the same, and I am puzzled what to do about them. 
 However, they are no worse, and my hearing is but little 
 affected. I hope you still continue to enjoy health, and that 
 you have increased your stock of good spirits — I don't mean 
 Athole brose — and that you have discovered some brighter 
 aspect of nature or humanity than when I last had the 
 pleasure of hearing from you. I am now, I beHeve, under 
 a promise to come and see you, but I myself am so little 
 worth seeing that I almost fear to impose my presence 
 upon anyone. However, as you do not seem to regard it as 
 an impost, I have good reason for divesting myself of all 
 apprehension. I shall come on Sunday evening if conveni- 
 ent, but almost any other evening will suit me as well — 
 With kind regards to Rebecca, whom I also hope to see 
 soon, I remain, yours faithfully, ' J. E. Smith.' 
 
 ' My Dear Lady Lytton, — I suppose I must make this a 2nd Jan. 
 very short letter, as I have not a larger sheet of paper in 
 my possession, excepting only huge folio and transparent 
 foreign-post. But small as it is it will be sufficient to say 
 that it was not convenient for me to come last Sunday, as, 
 besides my visit to the country, I had some other engage- 
 ments which arose out of it, and amongst the rest a 
 majority, or the entree of a youth into the era of manhood, 
 all which coming upon me like rapids in quick succession, 
 not only left me in arrears, but actually pining for solitude. 
 I have now commenced the new year very comfortably, and 'Moiieres 
 for the last two hours have been most agreeably absorbed Times" or, 
 in the tragedy of Moliere. I am delighted with it, so far as f5?Hu^s-°^ 
 I have gone, and anticipate for it a much more gracious ^^^^^^' ^^^i- 
 reception than the last was honoured with. By this I hope 
 to test the spirit by which the gentlemen of the press who 
 criticise your Ladyship's writings are actuated, for I am 
 determined not to hang one of them until I have tried him. 
 
352 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 The narrative of Moliere's marriage is a chef-d'oeuvre. I 
 am not a good hand at reading tales now, with a few superb 
 exceptions, and the fact of my total absorption and forget- 
 fulness of time and space when musing on the eccentric old 
 comedian and his little torment, is perhaps as good a compli- 
 ment as I can pay to the composition. I was alarmed at 
 first with some of the new English words, as bicoche for 
 cake, and I should have preferred every sentence of it 
 exclusively English, but the subject renders a slight 
 departure from this classical rule at least pardonable, and 
 my fears were soon lost in my unquaHfied satisfaction. I 
 only trust it may be so with those who know nothing at all 
 of French, and these are the nation. 
 
 ' I mean to try to find your Ladyship out, if convenient to 
 you, on Sunday evening. The address is Thurloe Cottage, 
 Thurloe Square. From this I would understand that the 
 cottage is in the square, although it has no number. But 
 this I daresay will become clear enough on the spot, although 
 at present it is wrapt up in a little mystery in my imagina- 
 tion. 
 
 With the usual compliments of the season to you and 
 Eebecca, I add the hope of a favourable reception to the 
 Comedian's Tragedy ; though it is rather too bad to indulge 
 the hope that the public may reap enjoyment from another 
 man's misery. — I am, your Ladyship's most obedient, 
 
 'James Smith.' 
 
 * My Dear Lady Lytton, — I received yours in due time, 
 but deferred answering it because I was under a half -engage- 
 ment to go to the country on Thursday next, and I am not 
 yet sure how 1 stand with it, but I will be sure to come to 
 Thurloe Cottage if I do not leave town. I am no party 
 man, as I have before told you, but I will try if I can play 
 the part of a partisan just to please you. 
 
 * I have been stirring about with my Handwriting on the 
 Wall, and met with one or two rebuffs. I can find plenty to 
 
A SENTENCE OF DEATH. 353 
 
 publish it at my expense, but that is not precisely what I 
 want. I have, however, found a printer who is willing to be 
 at the risk of printing and paper, which is more than half- 
 way towards it, and there I stand at present. However, I 
 am preparing it as if it were destined to be published, 
 without being at all very decided about my own movements 
 in the matter. As a few, however, now know of it, it may 
 be pushed into existence under permanent form : whether 
 into circulation or not, will depend on the advertisements 
 and its own merits. 
 
 ' Mr. Borthwick went off to Italy to-day for his health ; he 
 has been confined at home for three months with diabetes, 
 which English doctors call an incurable complaint, and has 
 scarcely written a leader for the Post all that time. He has 
 killed himself with hard work. It is a grievous labour 
 managing a daily paper. It is a sentence of death on even 
 a strong man, unless he is well assisted : working all night, 
 sleeping by day, and breakfasting in the afternoon — fashion- 
 able hours without the ease and the repose that wealth 
 procures. His poor wife is worn almost to a skeleton with 
 anxiety : she seems to have suffered more than he : they have 
 gone together, along with Mr. and Mrs. Crompton, proprie- 
 tors of the Morning Post. I hope it may do him good, but 
 I fear he is broken down, and will never be able for hard 
 work any more. 
 
 ' I will let you know in a few days how my engagement 
 stands. — Meanwhile, with kind regards to Eebecca, I remain, 
 yours truly, * J. E. Smith.' 
 
 * Thurloe Cottage^ 
 'Monday, May 2>\st, 1852. 
 
 'Dear Mr. Smith, — I beg to acknowledge, with many 
 thanks, the safe arrival of M. de Birard's had book and your 
 very witty letter. According to your astronomical pedigree, 
 it would seem, with regard to those patent monsters the 
 
 2a 
 
854 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 Bulwers, that " their stars are more in fault than they " ! 
 — at all events, I wish I had begun by taking the Bull by 
 the horns, and then perhaps the mad brute might not have 
 succeeded in goring my whole life as he has. 
 
 ' I am glad my opinion of Mr. Mackay's book is borne out 
 by so wise a head and clear judgment as yours. There is 
 a demoniacal wickedness in systematically and scientifically 
 trying to shake people's faith, that is unpardonable, — and is 
 about as humane and beneficial as if some German chemist, 
 from behind a clievaiLX-de-frise of Leyden jars, had hit upon 
 a method of depriving his fellow-creatures of the power 
 of inhaling the common air from whence they derived 
 their existence, and not content with so brilliant and useful 
 a discovery, then wrote reams of nonsense to insist upon 
 the importance of having his wholesale annihilation plan 
 generally adopted. I also quite agree with you that Mr, 
 Mackay does not quite comprehend what he would be at 
 himself, which reminds me strongly of an anecdote that I 
 was told by a friend of mine who was very intimate with 
 Goethe, when she was at Weimar. She had been reading 
 some mystification of Jean Paul's in a magazine ; and not 
 being able to make head or tail of it, took it to Gothe 
 {sic) and asked him to be Sphinx on the occasion, and 
 discover its meaning ; but after reading and re-reading the 
 article carefully — marking, learning, and inwardly digesting 
 it, he was obliged to confess that if meaning it had, he 
 could not arrive at it, but added, — " I am going to write to 
 Eichter to-morrow, and I will ask him to explain the meaning 
 of this last article of his." In due time he received the 
 following reply from Jean Paul : — 
 
 * " My Dear Wolfgang, — Touching my last article, I have 
 no doubt I had some glimmering of what I meant when I 
 wrote it ; but upon re-reading it, hang me if I can make 
 out what the deuce I would be at any more than yourself ; 
 but never mind — the public will only think it the more 
 profound from being incomprehensible ! " 
 
ONE OF THE MALE MONSTERS! 355 
 
 ' I am longing to see The Handioriting on the Wall, but 
 hope in the meanwhile I shall have the pleasure of seeing 
 its author soon again. — And with Rebecca's kind regards, 
 believe me, Dear Mr. Smith, very truly yours, 
 
 'ROSINA BULWER LyTTON.' 
 
 * My Dear Lady Lytton, — I received yours on Saturday sth July 
 night, with its enclosure, a little before midnight, after 
 returning from a visit to the country, and I cannot tell 
 whether I was more vexed or angry both with myself and 
 you. But nothing will persuade me to make use of the 
 money. I shall be busy all day, and will not take off my 
 slippers till the evening, but to-morrow I shall go and 
 convert the order into another, and send it to you, with many 
 thanks, however, for your generosity, and not a little admira- 
 tion of the heart that prompts you to such generous 
 actions, which no doubt must often injure yourself without 
 benefiting the most deserving. 
 
 ' The person for whom you intended the money does not De Prati. 
 deserve your compassion. He is one of the male monsters. 
 He used one wife very cruelly and deserted another, and 
 than married illegally, and was sent to Newgate to be tried 
 for bigamy, but the matter was compromised. But he was 
 ruined, having previously made nearly a thousand a year as 
 a medical man. In Newgate he wrote to me begging me to 
 raise a subscription for his defence. I answered the imper- 
 tinent letter by saying that I could not afford to keep one 
 wife, and I did not mean to raise money to enable another 
 man to keep two. This occasioned a quarrel, and I never 
 more heard of him till, in his last extremity, he wrote me 
 once more begging me to raise .£25 to enable him to leave 
 England for ever to go and reside in Ticini, in the Austrian 
 Switzerland, inhabited by Italians, where his sister has 
 landed property, but no cash. He is now gone, but before 
 he went he begged once more to be permitted to shake 
 hands with me. I saw him for ten minutes after all 
 
356 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 arrangements were made for his departure. He is a man of 
 great learning and talent, but without any heart that I could 
 ever perceive. I was the best friend he ever had in England. 
 I was the means of raising him from the most abject 
 poverty, in which he was meditating suicide as his only hope 
 of deliverance ; yet when he got up into affluence and 
 apparent independence, he never once invited me to his 
 house, and when I met him and his wife, as I several times 
 did, he never even introduced me to her. What I have 
 done for him T have done from a motive of mercy alone, 
 independent of justice, which it is not my prerogative to 
 administer to anyone, but I should be very sorry to ask any 
 one blindfold to contribute a farthing to promote such a 
 cause, and therefore I asked aid of those only who knew the 
 man almost, if not quite, as well as I did myself. But 
 ladies were not asked, nor do I think it right that they 
 should contribute, more especially as so many of their own 
 sex have far more urgent claims upon their compassion than 
 our vagabond sex ever can have. 
 
 ' Prepare, therefore, to resume possession of the money 
 to-morrow or "Wednesday, for I will not send out anyone to 
 procure the order, but go myself. 
 
 ' As for my book, there is the mark of Cain written on its 
 forehead. I believe the publishers think they see either 
 that or the mark of the beast, which is quite as bad, for 
 they will not have it on any terms — I mean the respectable 
 publishers. One seemed to be willing, but my printer 
 doubted his solvency, and the manuscript was taken away. 
 I now begin to think myself a very bad fellow, a most 
 impious heretic, and a most designing scoundrel, — a good 
 symptom according to the evangelical divines, for that is 
 the way divine grace begins to act upon the soul. I fear, 
 however, that mine is not the result of the agency of the 
 Holy Ghost of the pulpit, but the unholy ghost of Pater- 
 noster Row. 
 
 ' My manuscript is lying at the printer's, but I think of 
 
IT IS A WEARY WORLD. 357 
 
 taking it away for a season, and perhaps rewriting it, or 
 modifying it in part. I fear, however, that I shall spoil it if 
 I try to darn and mend it. Indeed, it is pretty well 
 darned already, all by way of accommodation. So that it is 
 like the Portland vase at the British Museum, put together 
 with diamond cement, and destined yet, I fear, to be cemented 
 still more, as I am doomed even to break it myself in order 
 to improve it by mending it. 
 
 ' It is a weary world, but I daresay it is all right for a 
 while, though not for ever, and it may even be right that 
 my manuscript be rejected this year, and reserved for the 
 next, or for eternity, to be cast perhaps into the river of 
 Lethe — not Leith Water. 
 
 * This is not a good time for publication now, very few new 
 books are advertised, and I think the publishers are in a 
 state of chrysalis, owing to the new mode of transacting 
 business. It may be some time before they recover their 
 former elasticity and confidence. 
 
 * I hope you found the Chevalier's books paid when you 
 received them. I forgot to write paid on the parcel, and 
 had reason afterwards to suspect my messenger. — With kind 
 remembrances to Rebecca, I remain, your Ladyship's mo. 
 ob., 'J. E. Smith.' 
 
 * My Dear Lady Lytton, — I return you the order according 7th July 
 to resolution and predetermined purpose, for I think it ^ ^ ' 
 more expedient that your own conscience may be enlightened 
 respecting the precise manner in which your bounty is 
 bestowed. I am very sensible of the compliment you pay 
 
 me, but I would rather not be the means of distributing the 
 charities of others, unless I were either the parson of a 
 parish, or the accredited agent of some benevolent insti- 
 tution, which I am not. 
 
 ' Moreover, I feel a peculiar delicacy in the present matter. 
 I happened to make allusion to the case of the Italian, an 
 old friend of your mother's, who introduced us to each 
 
O08 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 other, and whenever your Ladyship made an offer of your 
 generous aid, I felt self-conv4cted of having inadvertently 
 acted as if I were seeking a contribution, a thing I never 
 thought of until you compelled me to think of it, and so 
 soon as the idea entered my mind, the resolution came along 
 with it not to accept one farthing so surreptitiously or 
 cunningly obtained ; and I merely carry out that primitive 
 resolution by my present conduct, which therefore I hope 
 you will mercifully excuse. 
 
 ' I am sorry to hear of Rebecca's mishap ; surely her ma' 
 has taken too much care of her in infancy, that she had not 
 the measles long ago. 
 
 ' I am not much concerned about my manuscript, for I 
 think that a more favourable time is rapidly approaching 
 for it, and many other subjects akin to those of which it 
 treats. Besides, this is now not the favourable season of the 
 year for publication. 
 
 * With best wishes for your welfare and Rebecca's speedy 
 recovery, I remain, yours sincerely, ' J. Smith.' 
 
 Copy of Letter written to Tlie Rev. James Smith 
 hy Lady Buhcer Lytton. 
 
 'ThurJoe Cottage, 
 'Monday, July 19^7^, 1852. 
 
 'My Dear Mr. Smith, — I hope neither you nor Fido have 
 died of the stupidity and the long walk of yesterday evening 
 — he is a most darling dog, with the most innocent way of 
 begging I ever saw ; and the next time he comes to see me, 
 he shall find me, like the general run of " British females," 
 une femme moutonniere, which is what all puppies, whether 
 quadrupeds or bipeds, prefer. I send you my squib of Jew- 
 de-brass, wherein you will perceive I have taken Horace's 
 advice and unstrung my lyre — before I began my lampoon 
 
THE WANDERING JEW. 359 
 
 — SO that the ultra-doggerel is intentional — to suit the 
 weathercockism of the subject. You must know that it is 
 a fact^ and no invention of mine, that in the year 1835, 
 when Disraeli first burst upon the London world, he did so 
 in green velvet trousers ! ! black stockings, with broad crim- 
 son ribs, and point-lace ruffles. I remember taking him 
 one night to old Lady Cork's in this costume, when unfor- 
 tunately, after indulging in the dolce far niente upon a cane- 
 bottom rout-bench, he rose with the skirts of his coat over 
 his arms, and consequently, as he strutted across the room, 
 the anti-cherubinical ! portion of his green velvets displayed 
 a fine flowing arabesque pattern from the cane-bottom seat. 
 ""Who on earth is that?" said Rogers (the poet) to me. 
 "Disraeli, the Jew," I replied, "and evidently the wandering 
 Jew, for you see he has the brand of Cain (cane) upon him." 
 After starting first as a Eadical, then as a Tory, then as a 
 Whig, then back as a Tory again, he tried a little private 
 infamy in the way of getting up an intrigue with the Lady 
 Sykes of that day, who had already two other lovers in the 
 persons of Lord Lyndhurst and M'Lise the painter. This 
 charming parti carre made a tour up the Rhine, during 
 which time Dizzy tacked himself firmly on to Lord Lynd- 
 hurst. On his return, his present old wife (then Mrs 
 Wyndham Lewis) made a dead set at him, but he could not 
 endure her, generally rushing out of the room with his hands 
 to his head when she appeared, saying, "I can stand any- 
 thing but that d d vulgar, illiterate woman." And when I 
 
 used to say, " Oh, nonsense ; you must talk to her," he used to 
 put his thumbs in the armholes of his waistcoat, and resign- 
 ing himself to his fate, say, "Well, God is great ! " But soon 
 he began to adulate her and her money in the most fulsome 
 manner, the result of which was that she made her poor 
 obedient fool of a husband return him (Disraeli), with his 
 money, for Maidstone. Some months after I had been 
 turned out of my home, on returning from Ireland I drove 
 to Grosvenor Gate, where I found the house in great con- 
 
360 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 fusion, as they said poor Mr Wyndham Lewis had fallen 
 back in his chair and died suddenly half an hour before, 
 while signing a cheque for his wife's opera-box. I was 
 going a"\vay much shocked (for I had known him for sixteen 
 years), when the butler came running after the carriage, say- 
 ing that his mistress would see me. When I went in, to do 
 her justice she was not hypocrite enough to affect even the 
 decency of grief, but flinging herself into my arms said, 
 "Oh, Rosy ! I have so much to tell you. Disraeli has been 
 here, and he has made me an offer ! I never saw a man so 
 madly in love " ! ! ! ! 11111 " Good God ! " said I, " don't 
 talk of such things at this moment." 
 
 ' A few days after, she showed me some of his precious 
 epistles, which put the finishing-stroke to my contempt for 
 and disgust of that man, as no Don Juan writing to a houri 
 of fifteen, let alone an old woman of fifty-four, could have 
 written anything more passionate or more gross, and yet this 
 very woman, four months after, when I wrote to her in 
 despair at the death of a dog I had that I greatly loved, had 
 the effrontery to reply to me by saying she did not know 
 how I could presume to talk to her of my grief for the loss 
 of a dog, when she had lost a husband ! ! ! I could not 
 resist reminding her that I loved my dead dog more faith- 
 fully and sincerely than she had ever loved her living hus- 
 band — but I saw clearly how it was, Disraeli's game was to 
 toady the Bulwers, and so he had ordered her to cancel the 
 soi disant friendship (? ?) of sixteen years, and get up a Ger- 
 man quarrel with me. Though she is still as illiterate as in 
 the days when he used to screw his courage to the sticking- 
 point with " God is great ! " before he could talk to her, yet 
 that has not prevented his dedicating one of his novels to 
 her as the " sternest of critics ! ! ! and the most indulgent of 
 wives," for she has wisely had her money settled on herself. 
 I have been obliged to bore you with these details to make 
 Jew-de-brass intelligible to you. 
 
 * With Rebecca's kind regards and our united loves to II 
 
DEATH OF HIS DOG FIDO. 361 
 
 Pastor, or rather II Princepe Fido, believe me, dear Mr. 
 Smith, ever sincerely yours, ' Kosina Bulwer Lytton. 
 
 * Forgive the dirty copy of Jew-de-brass ; but not having 
 one, I borrowed it from a friend.' 
 
 'My Dear Lady Lytton, — I havejust received the melancholy 24th July 
 intelligence of the death of poor Fido; he was drowned in the Saturday, 
 river. The boy to whom he was intrusted to bathe him let 
 him go into the water with his chain on, along with a New- 
 foundland dog. Poor Fido's chain entangled him, and, I 
 suppose, he pulled his own head down ; and here am I in 
 a state of hesitation whether or not to dep]ore his loss. 
 Fortunaper acta est jam sua — his fortune is now made. " I 
 am very glad to hear of it," said an old Platonic friend of 
 mine whenever he heard of anyone's death. I saw him 
 in his coffin, and I thought of that saying, and have thought 
 of it often since, and even made use of it on suitable 
 occasions. There is a paradise for dogs, I hope, as well as 
 for fools. Why should there be no brute beasts in heaven 1 
 It will be a dull place without them, for brute ignorance is 
 the source of many virtues, except when it takes the shape 
 of God's own image. Poor Fido's death may bring con- 
 solation to Kebecca's finger, for, as he died in the water, 
 taking a voluntary bath, he was not afflicted with hydro- 
 phobia, and never will be. The finger is safe, therefore, 
 both in respect to the past and the future, and even the 
 paulo-post futurum^ which is somewhat beyond the future. 
 As for an elegy, a bit of Tarn Samson's, by Burns, will do for 
 Fido: 
 
 ' " Heaven rest his saul whare'er lie be 
 Is the wish o' mony mae than me ; 
 He had twa fauts, or maybe three, 
 
 Yet what remead. 
 Ae social, honest dog want we — 
 
 Poor Fido's dead ! " 
 
362 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 * After Fido comes Infido, or Jew cle Brass, which I received 
 in due time, but have not yet finished, but have ah-eady seen 
 lots of wit, as was to be expected from the hel esprit that 
 excogitated it. I have been very busy this week in the 
 service of the ladies, a most unusual thing with me. But, 
 strange to tell, no less than three ladies surrounded me at 
 once, and compelled me to divide myself amongst them. On a 
 of them I shipped off to Jersey, another I trained off to 
 Lancashire, and a third I conducted to the North Kent 
 Railway. This, with cabbing and calling, for they were old 
 friends from the country, gave me such a baking in the 
 hot sunshine that my eyes have been almost useless. Bad 
 they are now at the best, but they never were worse than 
 tliey have been this week, for they make me love darkness 
 rather than light, as if my deeds were evil. 
 
 ' I had no idea that the Satire was in print, but it has no 
 date. It looks as if you had sent me the proof-sheet, but 
 it must have been written before the death of Sir Robert 
 Peel. Perhaps I shall find out a little more as I proceed. 
 I see that you have introduced the humorous story of the 
 green velvet unutterables. Good old times those, when men 
 were not as now compelled by fashion to blacken themselves, 
 and when they might play the vert galant without being 
 suspected of being too green to burn either themselves or 
 others, i^ow the devil has given his own livery to society, 
 and thus consummated its progress, in our sex at least. Jeio 
 de Brass appears to have the honour of representing in his 
 own history the final transmutation ; he is no longer green, 
 nor is he white for the harvest, but, like the principles he 
 makeSf he has got the blight or the black rust, the very sight 
 of which makes the farmers blue. I called at the Morning 
 Post last night, and heard that your friend guest (the friendly 
 critic), poor fellow — for I know you will pity him at last — 
 has been seized with congestion of the brain, occasioned by 
 the heat of the weather, working during the night by strong 
 gas-light in a house filled with gas-burners and heated like 
 
' SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUXDI.' 363 
 
 an oven. Borthwick is expected home from Italy at the 
 end of next week ; he is a little improved with the change 
 of climate, but his son says he can never return to his old 
 position at the Morning Post. Sic transit gloria mundi — we The mystic 
 must all pass away. How my old friend, James Pierrepont see p. 198. ' 
 Greaves, would rejoice, if he were not a dead man, to hear 
 of people being knocked up ! It was his delight to hear 
 of ailments as well as of deaths, but chiefly because the 
 ailments were the messengers of death. We shall soon get 
 rid of all our enemies ; they wiU be cracked like nuts with 
 eternal smash into sleep everlasting, but damn their bodies ! 
 as the Psalmist says, or means at least, though they put 
 worse words in his mouth. What horrible slavery is 
 endured merely to feed the people with what they call intel- 
 ligence ! The poor reporters for the last three weeks have 
 been reporting speeches by day, then taking the trains, with 
 a little lamp in their hands, and writing out the reports on 
 their knees for the press as they hurry along to the great 
 metropolis, where, having arrived, the first thing they think 
 of is not rest, but copy — copy — copy — more copy, and yet 
 all this intelHgence is but rays of darkness — black light, hke 
 that which poor Fido has gone to : — 
 
 * ** Now he is gone to the land of grim fellows, 
 Where the shadows Rembrandtical fall, 
 Where the Hght blackly strikes, and the scene never mellows, 
 And where darkness is horrid withal." 
 
 — Yours ever, ' J. E. Smith.' 
 
 * My Dear Lady Lytton, — I have read your Poem or 6th Aug. 
 Satire long ago ; but, last week, when I was going to write 
 you about it and about your sympathetic tears for poor 
 Fido, I found that I had not a single sheet of paper, except- 
 ing only blue paper, which you dislike, I daresay. I have 
 made that an excuse for not writing letters ever since. But 
 yesterday I got in another half-ream, which, I daresay, will 
 soon vanish, if used as some of the former was for writing 
 
864 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 the servant's love-letters ; and not only hers, but her lover's 
 in return, which came to the house even wrapped in my 
 own envelopes. All fair with an old bachelor, you will say, 
 no doubt ; and I cannot say that I am at all angry with the 
 girl. For although petty theft is accounted very mean by 
 people of high spirit and honour, I am of opinion that the 
 pettier a crime of any kind is the better. Jeio de Brass 
 contains many admirable touches of wit; I think I must 
 read it over again to collect them. Many of them are useful 
 in suggesting or illustrating thoughts. The prosaic metre 
 tends very much to break the monotony of couplets, which 
 have a tendency to degenerate into a drone ; you keep up 
 the speech by the irregularity of the metre. You did not 
 say whether I was to return it or not ; but I suppose not, 
 though, having many press corrections in it, I was not sure. 
 
 ' You almost made me cry for Fido also, when you told me 
 of your own tears. Poor Fido had no idea that he was to 
 be so highly honoured, and that so soon. I could almost 
 wish to die myself to be so lamented ; only I would not like 
 to be the cause of a tear, or of tearless sorrow ; and how one 
 can be lamented without sorrow is a problem for not such 
 wit as mine to solve. However, I am beginning now in 
 right earnest to envy the dead. It saves one the trouble of 
 envying the living, who are all under sentence of death, and 
 therefore not real objects of envy. " No man can be called 
 fortunate until he is dead " said an ancient wiseacre ; and a 
 Manchester man has improved the saying by thus transform- 
 ing it, "The great thing in life is to get well dead." Well 
 dead ! what a blessing. Count D'Orsay is dead, and once 
 dead it is all over ; but he is said to have died a very painful 
 death, and to have been an old man before his time, for he 
 was only 50, and the papers talk of his decay and decrepi- 
 tude. He has lain down beside his mother, and wife as 
 many suppose. He married Lord Blessington's daughter, 
 and took to the Lord's wife. The poor wife of civil 
 marriage was treated as other wives are treated. Ceremonial 
 
' FOR YOUR mother's SAKE.' 365 
 
 marriage seems to have a magical effect upon love in destroy- 
 ing it. In heaven there is to be no marriage, for it is the 
 kingdom of love. Marriage is only wanted where love is 
 not wanted. So says a sour old bachelor. 
 
 ' By the by, I have on two occasions lately been treated 
 rudely by two married men simply for being a bachelor. 
 One was a religious old gentleman, who said it was positively 
 sinful ' 
 
 'My Dear Lady Lytton, — I received yours, with its en- Monday? 
 closed, but have done nothing with the latter as yet, for 
 several reasons. 
 
 * In the first place, I cannot hand it to the writer of the 
 leader, for I know not who he is. It is not Borthwick, 
 who is now reduced almost to a skeleton, and has done no 
 literary work for four or five months. I could not send it 
 to him, for the house is a house of sorrow, and I know not 
 how sad it may be even now, and I could not take it person- 
 ally, because it would involve me in a painful subject of 
 conversation, which I would rather avoid, more especially 
 with such strong and insulting epithets employed by the 
 party whose side I should naturally be disposed to take. 
 
 ' How glad should I be if I could persuade your Ladyship 
 how much stronger your language would be if it were less 
 violent. But such a wish appears to be a hopeless one; 
 nevertheless it is my duty, so long as I know you, for your 
 own sake and your mother's sake, never to shrink from 
 reminding you of a solemn truth, the consciousness of which 
 seems to be aU that is wanting to secure to you the favour 
 even of the press, which you regard as your collective and 
 accompliced enemy. As for Borthwick, he does not know 
 Sir Edward Lytton personally ; and moreover, he is no 
 admirer of him. I have heard him repeatedly speak in 
 severe and censorious terms of him. As for editorial articles, 
 they are written by different persons ; and not long ago I 
 heard Borthwick complaining bitterly of a stupid article 
 
366 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 that had been put into leader type. I did not see the 
 article you speak of, but I shall call in a day or two at the 
 house of the editor and inquire about it, in a quiet way. I 
 am sorry to hear of your illness, and fear it is mental or 
 nervous excitement, as last time you wrote to the editor of 
 the Morning Post you were also in bed. It is not the best 
 place for writing, for, however true the feelings and the 
 words of a sickbed, they are not so well adapted for the ears 
 of the busy and the active world, which must always listen 
 more respectfully to the words of mundane expediency than 
 to those of individual vexation. 
 
 * Bear, and avenge not yourself, or you w411 lose the divine 
 reward of suffering. Remember the example of Him \vho 
 suffered, the just for the unjust. There is a merit in suffer- 
 ing patiently ; and depend upon it the rewards of God at last 
 are better than any you can expect from man at iirst. How 
 deeply wronged all men and women are, none but God can 
 tell ; and none but He can judge all secret things, thoughts, 
 and feelings. — I am, yours ever, ' J. E. Smith.' 
 
 ' My Dear Lady, — I return you the heads of Her Most 
 Gracious Majesty without any decapitation ; but if they 
 return, I will then commence the process of decollation, and 
 put one on each of the envelopes as I return them, or paste 
 them all on one at once, and astonish the letter-carrier. I 
 know you are very angry with me, but I cannot help it : if I 
 have offended your nature, you have offended mine ; and we 
 must each stand on our own rights. — Yours, ever the same, 
 
 'J. Smith.' 
 
 2i8tDec. 'My Dear Lady Lytton, — Your well-known lady-like 
 
 epistle made its welcome appearance this morning, along 
 with a cup of coffee, and awakened a number of painful 
 sensations and cogitations on this life of sorrow ; and now, in 
 a state of mental bewilderment, like an old Philistine biting 
 his nails over Samson's riddle, I sit down to answer it. 
 
 1852 
 
LOSS OF AN OLD FRIEND. 367 
 
 * I have indeed lost an old friend, one who for twenty-eight 
 years or more has always welcomed me with a smile, and 
 with whom I have never had one angry word. But we 
 were rather personal friends for old acquaintance sake, than 
 because of any mental or spiritual communion that existed 
 between us. He was a politician ; I am not. We parted in 
 spirit long ago on that very point. He went into the world, 
 and I went out of it ; and the world has killed him ; me 
 it has not thought it worth itsVhile to kill, though I hate it 
 more than he did, and rejoice to see all politicians come 
 down and be laughed at, for they (the fallers) have pre- 
 viously rejoiced at the downfall of others, and done their 
 best to cause it. 
 
 * I see you are angry with me for not calling upon you 
 unasked : well, perhaps I was wrong in being so backward, 
 considering the kindness with which you have always 
 received me. But I told you at the first what sort of man I 
 was, and how very reluctant to go into society, for the fact 
 is I am not an individual, but many individuals, having a host 
 of spiritual beings always with me, whose chief object seems 
 to be to wean me from the world, and who are never com- 
 fortable -unless I am thinking of super-worldly things. 
 These beings hoot and spit at politics, and tell me it is all up 
 with human legislation; and they laugh at everything 
 earthly as a mere vanity, and regard the downfall of parties 
 and the sorrows of individuals as merely the passing clouds 
 of a landscape. They are devils like myself. How, then, 
 can they be fit company for your Ladyship. 
 
 ' It grieves me much to give your Ladyship any pain, but 
 what can a poor man do who is possessed ? Did I make 
 myself 1 or did I even wish to be made at all 1 Did I place 
 myself where I now am, with all my present annoyances and 
 grievances? Not I. Had I it in my power I would 
 change everything. I would even change your Ladyship, and 
 keep on adding and adding to all your attractions, physical, 
 intellectual, and moral, till I myself actually swooned away 
 
Life, 
 
 368 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 in the fulness thereof. But not having such power, I can 
 only wish I may get it ; and I think it quite as reasonable to 
 entertain such Avishes, as to brood over grievances which I 
 cannot remedy, and regrets which are useless. 
 
 ' Although I have not seen you for a long time, you must 
 not suppose that I have not been thinking of you. The fact 
 is, that you are a sort of study for me, and I often think that 
 you must have caused a great many to love and a great 
 many to hate you. I think you must be well hated, and yet 
 I believe few women ever were better calculated by nature 
 and education for creating a romantic passion. An old, 
 greyheaded, baldheaded fellow like me can study such a 
 subject very quietly now, but humanity must ever be the 
 rired of study of human beings to the last. And my last, I mean 
 the last of my mortality, I hope is not far off : I am tired of 
 dust. 
 
 ' I suppose you have heard of the American Spirit-Rappers. 
 You may be sure I should go and hear them. That is just the 
 subject for me — a ghost ! Oh how delightful 'tis to see, but 
 especially to hear. I went and raised the spirit of my own 
 father, who gave me the evidence of his identity or intimate 
 acquaintanceship with our family history by telling me his 
 christian name, the date of his death, the name of my 
 youngest brother deceased, &c., and who also sent me a 
 communication from the other world. The raps are very 
 distinctly heard on the table or anywhere else, — I got some 
 on the sofa; and they communicate by means of an 
 alphabet rapping out the letters of the words in succession, 
 as you run over the alphabet with a pencil. It is a very 
 wonderful phenomenon, and is I hope the dawn of that 
 better time when the intercourse between this world and the 
 next will be completely opened up, and the dead shall 
 appear and converse with the living as one friend with 
 another. This must take place during the millennium, which 
 will be enjoyed by all those who have lived, as well as by 
 those who have not died, for the two worlds will be united, 
 
I AM A FANATIC. 369 
 
 the one being the spiritual protector and guardian of the 
 other. That is what I think most about. Hang all politics 
 and D'Israels ! — I want Israel, which is the redeemed 
 Churches, two in one : no Dis-Israel or De-Israel, which is the 
 unredeemed old-clothes Church, which I don't want to 
 belong to, even although it were graced with all the aris- 
 tocracy of England, who after all are nothing but dust. 
 
 ' I have got a very nice book about the rapping spirits, 
 which I should send you if I thought you would take any 
 interest in it ; and if you do not take any interest in it, how 
 then can I take any interest in you, for the only great sub- 
 ject that embraces all other subjects of any enduring interest 
 is the Kingdom of God. 
 
 ' I think I hear you say now, what a fanatic that fellow 
 is ! You are quite right : I am a fanatic ; I am tired of the 
 mortal and corruptible, and long for the immortal and incor- 
 ruptible, and envy nobody but those who have gone to enjoy 
 those. I am sorry for nobody who dies, but only for those 
 who are left behind, so that I shall not be sorry to hear of 
 your Ladyship's death, as I also hope you will not be sorry to 
 hear of mine. 
 
 ' What a melancholy letter, in reply to one so full of wit 
 and fun ; but I shall conclude it with a dance and a song, for 
 I am actually invited to a dance to-morrow evening, and mean 
 to go too. I like to see a dance : it gives me a pictorial idea 
 of order and harmony and love ; and although it is merely an 
 idea, yet I like it. I like also to see a ballet : it is generally Likes to see 
 the representation of a paradisaical state, with none of the ^ ^''^"^*" 
 foul passions of the tragedy and the comedy, which I hate, 
 especially the tragedy. This taste I hope wiU redeem the 
 character of my fanaticism, for it is not of the morose or the 
 exclusive sort, but particularly fond of innocence and mirth 
 and cheerfulness, and only abhorrent of politics and secta- 
 rianism, which are the twin curses of this world, without 
 which we could easily settle aU the affairs of society in such 
 a way as would give entire satisfaction even to your Lady- 
 
 2 B 
 
370 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 ship, for I know you just want everybody to be happy, not 
 even excepting your enemies, after they have received a good 
 flogging. 
 (Bovtinvick.) ' Peter is to be buried on Christmas eve, or rather Peter's 
 
 body, not Peter himself I mean to go and assist 
 
 at the mournful ceremony. I was at his wedding funeral 
 — breakfast I mean, and mean to conclude the drama of our 
 acquaintanceship by attending the death-funeral ; and if I 
 can shed a few tears I shall be very glad, for really tears do 
 me good, and at present I feel so very feverish and such a 
 nervous excitement that I know that tears will do me good. 
 But I don't think they will be tears of grief. I think Peter 
 and I are better friends now than we were before. He has 
 got into the spiritual world like myself, out of politics, for 
 which he now, I daresay, cares not one rush, whereas those 
 things that I chiefly care for are everlasting, and I am sure 
 he cares for them now more than ever he did. I know you 
 have a little spite against him. But had you known him 
 personally you would have liked him, and he never spoke 
 evil of you, nor did he write those articles that gave you 
 offence ; and though, as responsible editor, he was responsible 
 for them, yet he has only been the nominal editor for 
 twelve months, and has written almost nothing, sometimes 
 nothing for months in succession. His sorroAvs were begun 
 when he corresponded with you, and he was then told by Dr. 
 Bence Jones that he could not live three months. He became 
 anxious about his family, and perhaps fretful and abrupt. 
 But as I told you at the time, the letter you sent him was an 
 unfavourable specimen of yourself, and therefore he had not 
 the best material for forming a good judgment. This, I know, 
 will not convince you, but we are both alike inconvincible. 
 
 * Remember me kindly to Rebecca ; and believe me to be, 
 yours never angry, though you should kill me, 
 
 ' James Smith. 
 
 * By the by, I hear that Sir Edward B. L. has been rapping 
 up his mother.' 
 
MRS. HAYDEN, THE MEDIUM. 871 
 
 * My Dear Lad}- Lytton, — I think you desorve a rap for 29th i>ec. 
 reading the title-page of j\Ir. Adin liallon's book ^vrong, hut 
 
 it is ^Ir. Stone's fault, for he has approi)riated the chairman's 
 seat, and turned poor Ballon out of his own house. Stone 
 did not write one word of the book — not even the introduc- 
 tion by G. AV. Stone. All the infonnation you want is 
 contained in the book, either in the introduction, or in the 
 advertisement at the end, neither of which I suppose you 
 had read, being so very anxious to get to the heart of it that 
 you did not even think of looking at its extremities. 
 
 ' I have just been reading another called Supernal Theology, 
 which is still better, and gives one a very pleasing idea of 
 the next world, and makes one quite long to die. Poor 
 Mrs. Hayden, the medium in London, says it is the joy of her 
 life merely to indulge the hope of joining these happy spirits. 
 She has been very ill, having had a miscarriage, caused by 
 sea-sickness, so that she has not been able to go out. But I 
 gave her a call the other night (^^Tonday), and found her 
 accouched on a sofa, and I made her laugh by telling her what 
 you said about the son making compensation to the mother 
 for knocking her down by rapping her up. She then said Scc last 
 very thoughtfully, " That accounts for the difficulty he has 
 always had in getting raps from her. I accoinitod for it by 
 his want of faith, his sceptical and suspicious habit of mind, 
 but what you say seems to throw another light on the 
 subject." 
 
 ' A friend of mine has found an English medium in one of 
 his old servants (Sally). The raps come very distinctly. I 
 know also a family where they are beginning. I have also 
 just heard of a case of a young woman whose cotton balls 
 and other feminine implements jump out of her lap, and 
 dance from table to table, as if they were alive, and then 
 come back again. So that the English are getting on — wo 
 shall soon have (/e???o?2strations enow. 
 
 * According to the Supernal Theology, which T have just 
 been reading, there are eight spheres altogether around this 
 
372 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 world, all inhabited. The one we live in is the first or 
 lowest sphere. Heaven is the highest. The intermediate 
 six we must pass through. The spirits live as we do here, 
 only more simply and comfortably. They have bodies to 
 them as solid as ours to us, and they have dresses and music, 
 and musical instruments and books, and they draw and 
 paint, and write music and poetry, and have concerts and 
 dances, and assemblies, orations, &c. They rise from sphere 
 to sphere, in longer or shorter time, according to progress. In 
 the second or the lowest spiritual sphere, they begin to 
 shake off their terrestrial errors and infirmities : children do 
 not require to remain in this, but go up, up, up, sometimes 
 to the sixth or seventh at once. It is chiefly people who 
 die in advanced life, and have contracted much terrestrial 
 infirmity, that require to linger in the lower regions — such 
 as politicians, railway directors, lawyers, and their wives 
 and mistresses, &c. Simple, honest people get up over their 
 heads very easily. The passage from one sphere to another 
 is almost like a death; and in passing from the seventh 
 sphere to the eighth, it is as great a change as death is to us, 
 for the spirits of the eighth sphere become as invisible to 
 those beneath them as spirits to us. I had a long conversa- 
 tion with my father's spirit about the other world, but I 
 find he diff"ers from others, as in fact they all more or less 
 do. He tells me that the centre of the earth is inhabited, 
 and is a very luminous and happy place, into which the 
 spirits of the third sphere may enter, but not those of the 
 second. It is a most curious thing — there can be no doubt 
 of the spiritual agency, no human power could do what is 
 done, but the spiritual responses are very deceptive. There 
 are evidently some very waggish spirits, that answer the 
 questions with the thumb upon the nose, as Hooky Walker 
 would do it ; but others are very honest, or rather, perhaps, 
 they are all honest at one time, and dishonest at another, as 
 if to bewilder us. But it matters not — the fact is still 
 wonderful ; and when we think that there are thousands of 
 
SPIRITUALISM. 873 
 
 mediums in the United States, and yet not enough to 
 satisfy the curiosity of inquirers, we are justified in suppos- 
 ing that something strange must be intended, and that a 
 revolution is beginning in the religious faith of the world. 
 It ^yill shake the Church to its foundations if it go on 
 according to promise and the ratio of its late rapid pro- 
 gress. 
 
 * Mr. Stone, as you will see from the book, is merely the 
 Barnum that brought over Mrs. Hayden, whose husband 
 accompanied her. Hayden is the editor of an American 
 journal, what else I know not; a simple, honest-looking 
 young man. ]Mrs. Hayden is an equally honest-looking, pale 
 and delicate-looking woman. Further than this I know not, 
 except that they have been much in request, but unable to 
 accept engagements. But Lord Eglinton, Lord Eos, and a 
 large party of ladies and gentlemen had them once at the 
 Clarendon Hotel, and again somewhere else, and several 
 other grandees have had them, or rather her, for Mr. Hayden 
 merely takes her to the door in a cab, leaves, and returns for 
 her : this to allay suspicion of collusion. Now, are you 
 satisfied or excited 1 — I am, yours ever, ' J. E. Smith.' 
 
 * Twelfth Day (miserable), 
 ' 5 Palace Boio, Lambeth.' 
 (Post-mark) — Brighton, 7th January 1853. 
 ' My Dear Lady Lytton, — Lady Hotham and you have set 
 me a task which is not well adapted to my capacity or dis- 
 position. Xot that I am afraid of the spirits like your male 
 grenadier, but I am afraid of myself too much in fact to 
 have ever put a question to the spirits respecting temj^oral 
 things, and especially of life and death. I have seen the 
 tables move without experiencing any fear or even a thrill. 
 I put down my hand once on purpose to see if a spirit would 
 shake hands with me below the table, but it did not. What 
 I should have felt had I got a nice, delicious, fond squeeze of 
 
374} SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 a fine plump hand on the occasion, I know not, but I had 
 the courage to try ! But I liave not the courage to enquire 
 respecting the death of a fellow-creature, for then I should 
 be sure that the responses were made by a host of murderers, 
 the souls of Eush and Greenacre and Good, and some hundreds 
 of others, who have been hanged in England for the last 
 hundred years. In this manner witchcraft arose in the 
 Middle Ages, and we are told it may yet again arise if people 
 encourage the same class of spirits, which could not fail to 
 be the case if such inquiries as yours were made. It is 
 well that you and I and Lady Hotham do not live in the 
 16th century, for your letter would be sufficient evidence 
 against us all, first to render your two Ladyships liable to 
 the penalty of being thrown into the water to see if you 
 could swim, and me to be incarcerated till you were disposed 
 of by being dried in the fire after being taken out of the 
 water, as I have no doubt that both of you would float very 
 easily. 
 
 ' Were the rapping manifestations a fortune-telling affair 
 I should never have taken any interest in them. It was 
 because they were of a religious, spiritual, and beautifully 
 devotional character that I was attracted to them. I have 
 no objection to try the skill of an astrologer in fortune-telling, 
 because he professes science, and I wish to know whether it 
 deserves the name of a science or not. But the spirits do 
 not profess to tell fortunes, nor do they approve of such 
 questions, nor do they regard worldly prosperity as a matter 
 of importance, but rather a thing of paltry insignificance 
 that is very soon to be left behind, to rot in its own grave- 
 yard. But the ides of March will soon be here, and your 
 astrologer's science put to the test. I would not give 
 See p. 402. a sixpence, however, for his chance of being right, 
 and would have no fear whatever of betting 100 to 1 
 against him. 
 
 ' However, I don't like to think of the subject: I am sorry 
 you mentioned it to me. For although I can find numerous 
 
THE MYSTERY OF SEX. 375 
 
 justifications for you, and consider it C[uite natural for a 
 femina converti in such circumstances to long to be deconvertij 
 yet I should prefer a pious and silent resignation to the will 
 of Heaven to any application to inferior agents, either to 
 discover or control your destiny. 
 
 * I have not seen Mrs. Hayden since I wrote you last, nor 
 did I mean to call often, because I do not wish to cultivate 
 any intimacy, nor to be under any obligation. They might 
 expect from me, in return, more than my conscience or 
 discretionary power could ever accord. With Mrs. Hayden 
 alone I should have less fear (don't pun upon this, I beseech 
 you ; it is a lapsus, but I will not erase it), but Stone is the 
 man of business, the man for the dollars, and I wish to keep 
 him at a respectful distance. 
 
 'I am sorry to hear that you are so disquieted in mind and 
 body, and so very erratic. It seems all a mystery to me. 
 But your blood circulates faster than mine, and gives you a 
 disposition as well as a destiny that is incomprehensible to 
 me. A young lady once said to me, " Men are most 
 mysterious beings; I cannot comprehend them," but the 
 mystery to me hangs chiefly over the other sex, and you as 
 one of the chief of them. What Lady Hotham is I have no 
 idea ; but if you two ladies have any design of reviving the 
 absolute order of witchcraft or sorcery, I congratulate myself 
 in being too humble a person ever to be regarded as a model 
 form of your many images, or even for one of your clay 
 ones. 
 
 ' However, once the ides of INIarch are past, I hope you will 
 be cured, and, thus vaccinated, that you will ever after be 
 warranted free from all mischief but that which contemplates 
 the happiness of its victim, the only legitimate witchcraft 
 for the sex that was intended for a comfort to ours, "but 
 marred in the making." These latter are not my words, but 
 those of an old gentleman of much experience, who had a 
 wife, which I never had, and therefore cannot speak either 
 for or against your deplorable sex. 
 
376 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 * You seem, however, to think a wife a blessing to a man, as 
 you wish me a pop so very early, a long time before you 
 yourself can perpetrate the crime again. When God sends 
 me a wife I will take her, even as Adam took Eve when she 
 was brought unto him. But I don't mean to go out in 
 search of one. I am sure I should make a blunder if I did, 
 and pick up a jade. But even if God send a jade, I will 
 take her and submit, and say " I was dumb and opened not 
 my mouth, because thou hast done it." I shall have my 
 natural partner when I go to the spiritual world : there each 
 finds his other half, and love is certain, but it is impossible 
 permanently to love any other. — I am; yours ever, 
 
 ' J. E. Smith.' 
 
 ' 5 Palace Neio Road, Lambeth, \'2tli July 1853. 
 
 ' I was long wondering what had become of your Lady- 
 ship, but for want of a divining rod was unable to discover, 
 and I had not even sufficient faith in the spirits to put the 
 question to them. Now, at last, the mystery has resolved 
 itself into a simple and not at all surprising maladminis- 
 tration of precuniary affairs, or which is the same thing, 
 misplaced confidence in professional honesty. I am puzzled 
 whether to condole with you, or to congratulate you on your 
 loss. I envy you the ha^Dpiness of living in so retired and 
 so lovely a spot. 
 
 * Remote from man, with God to spend your days, and your 
 artistic description of the vale of Llangollen, painted by 
 nature in fresh water-colours, sweetened with the perfume 
 of human kindness and Welsh hospitality, revives the long 
 mortified feelings or rather passions of my youth for 
 landscape scenery, by presenting to it almost my young beau 
 ideal of a life of rej^ose. IS'othing seems to be wanting, for 
 though you have wickedly forgotten to make allusion to 
 Sweet Jenny Jones, I have used the liberty of putting in the 
 figure myself into your smiling landscape, and now it is 
 
INNOCENT ASS! 377 
 
 complete, we have finished the picture between us, as the old 
 masters used to do. But after all, I have spoiled it. What 
 have turbid writers to do with Jenny Jones 1 You yourself 
 are the proper heroine of the scene you have painted, so out 
 goes Jenny : I cannot improve your picture. 
 
 ' I am drudging away in the old place, too lazy even to 
 move quietly, waiting for the last enemy to take me away 
 from the very spot, if he pleases and when he pleases. I 
 think as little of this world as I can. It forces itself more 
 than enough upon me, and in all its aspects it annoys me. 
 I literally hate it. I am a complete misanthropist, and 
 misogamist also ; remember I hate all women. What has 
 spoiled them I know not, or whether they have been 
 spoiled or not I know not. But I wish both myself and 
 them to be what neither of us is or ever will be in this 
 water-coloured landscape. As for men, they — i.e., we — may 
 all say with Coleridge in Lines to an Ass, " Innocent Ass ! 
 thou poor despised forlorn ! I hail thee brother ! " 
 
 * I have no news to tell you, but I send you a specimen 
 of a spirit. It may amuse your Ladyship, astonish the 
 parson, and horrify his wife. It has come out by direct 
 lineal descent from the American manifestations, as you may 
 see ; they are chiefly Americans who conduct it. The 
 Ecce Homo, however, is a young Englishman of twenty-two, 
 brought up a Roman Catholic. The spirit has ordered the 
 youth to be dressed in a white linen robe, and also a 
 crimson robe, purple cap, high-heeled boots, and other 
 insignia of royalty, and Mr. Isham is a wealthy American 
 gentleman,'"a merchant, at present in England on business, 
 who has been caught by the spirit, and made to assist in 
 doing his work. He is a very mild, gentlemanly man, and 
 is completely entranced, and persuaded of its divine reality. 
 I have met him several times. But they were all ordered 
 to leave London, and go to Cheltenham, where they are now 
 (engaged in making the dresses for the Ecce Homo. What 
 pranks the devils do play with us poor, wretched mortals. I 
 
378 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERS ALIST. 
 
 often think that this is merely a dream, and not a serious 
 reality ; that the disembodied spirits only laugh at our mis- 
 fortunes, and mock when our fears come upon us ; and when- 
 soever they establish a communion with us, they treat us with 
 the wildest and most delirious gammon. It is Goldsmith, 
 your favourite, who says that the pleasures and the sorrows 
 of this life are matters of indifference, and that Providence 
 neither rewards us with the one, nor punishes us with the 
 other. But the Scriptures go forth and say that He gives 
 the sorrows to his favourites, and prosperity to the wicked. 
 He sets vile men on horseback, and makes good men like me 
 trudge it on foot, with a bundle on their back. 
 
 ' I am glad to hear of Tiber's welfare. He rejoices in his 
 mistress's misfortunes, and converts her sorrows into his 
 own pleasures. Happy dog ! not unlike men in that respect, 
 only more true and devoted. I have lately lost a little 
 favourite dog, which however did not live here, but in the 
 country. It has owned me as its only lord and master for 
 the last twelve years, but last year its eyes became bad, and 
 this year it lost its sight entirely, yet it walked about pretty 
 freely, but one day it fell into a well and discovered the 
 grand secret. It was a beautiful terrier, by name Fox ; now 
 I am dogless. 
 
 ' I am glad to hear of Rebecca's welfare. But you were 
 too good friends to be long united. The devil won't permit 
 that, and he is the god regnant. I hope you will take care 
 of the other half of your income, and not be persuaded by 
 a swindler to send it out in search of its fellow. — I am, yours 
 very truly, ' J. Smith. 
 
 ' Perhaps you will translate the tract into Welsh ; your 
 translation might have the effect of frightening the devils.' 
 
 20th Aug. ' May it please your Ladyship ! — I have got some black ink 
 
 now — that is, such black ink as I can use, for I had forsworn 
 the use of the old black ink and taken to violet (not blue, as 
 your Ladyship called it), because I found that my ink-bottles 
 
 18.53. 
 
ROMANCE AND COMMONPLACE. 379 
 
 became so dirty and clotted and barkened with it in a few 
 days, and the ink itself became so unmanageable with bees- 
 wing skin and mould, and a thousand other perversities, that 
 I had lost all patience with it, and given it a bill of divorce- 
 ment, as the old Jewish rabbis did to their wives when they 
 ceased to please them. 
 
 ' The ink with which I now write I made myself. It is a 
 perfect fluid even as water itself, has no skin, sediment, or 
 mould, and leaves the bottle clean and tidy. It flows very 
 freely, and looks well. It has no acid in it, and is therefore 
 very good-natured, so that I hope you will not find fault 
 with it, unless at the same time you find fault with good- 
 nature itself, which some critics do, as they say it is apt to be 
 destitute of spirit. But one cannot get all the perfection con- 
 centrated into one perfection, in this life at least — we must 
 wait a little longer. 
 
 ' I thought of you yesterday and to-day as I was reading 
 about Mr. and Mrs. Norton in the pajDers. It seems that he 
 withholds her allowance also, and pays, when he does pay, 
 very reluctantly. Money and love try people's tempers 
 fearfully. Eobert Owen is going to get rid of money on 
 this very account. But who will ever succeed in ridding 
 us of love ? for I suppose there can be no love without its 
 counterpart, jealousy ; and the more romantic young love is, 
 the less likely to be permanent. It is a sad thing to fall 
 from the heights of romance into the nettles and rubbish of 
 commonplace. I know what that is ; for in my young days, 
 when I was walking along the top of the Mound in 
 Edinburgh, all alone, I saw a beautiful young lady coming 
 right a-face of me. I felt a sort of thrill at the sight of 
 her, and just as I felt it her parasol was caught by the 
 wind and precipitated down to the bottom of the plain. 
 There was no garden then at the bottom, but heaps of stones 
 and abundance of nettles. In a moment I felt myself 
 descending after the parasol, but my feet slipped and I was 
 precipitated with great force amongst the nettles and the 
 
380 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 stones. I was stimg all over, and bruised at the same time. 
 But I secured the parasol, and walked triumphantly up to 
 present it in person to its charming owner, expecting at least 
 a smile of satisfaction, if not of gratitude, from so fair a 
 countenance. What was my astonishment when she merely 
 took the parasol roughly from my hand, and without a word 
 or a smile or a look that I considered worth recording in my 
 memory — she walksd away! The nettles were nothing, the 
 bruises were nothing, but that cold, unmannerly or heartless 
 indifference almost made me cry. And yet I have often 
 since thought that perhaps the poor soul was overpowered with 
 feeling, and knew not what to say or do, for it was on my 
 part a very foolish action — an impulse. However, it broke 
 the spell, and many have had their young spells broken in a 
 manner somewhat analogous. Poor Mrs Norton ! I pitied 
 her when I read her case. I know that you think her not 
 what she should be. But I cannot judge her, and it is no 
 business of mine. Whether she be innocent or guilty is 
 nothing to me. I pity the guilty, and I pity the young 
 romantic love that slips as I did and falls amongst the 
 stones and the nettles. 
 
 ' It is a horrid thing love, at least such love as this world 
 furnishes. I scarcely ever met a specimen of it that excited 
 my envy. Now I never do. The exceptions must have 
 been in my young days. The more one thinks of holy 
 matrimony, the more it dwindles down into a profane 
 bargain or barter of one person for another. A commercial 
 transaction, clothed with apparent sanctity by means of an 
 ecclesiastical consecration. It will never be what it jDrofesses 
 to be. Man is not made for it — I mean both sexes. For 
 unless women are shut up as in Turkey, there must be 
 mixed society, and it is quite impossible for men to see fine 
 women without admiring them and delighting to converse 
 with them, and this alone is enough to create misery. Men 
 are not all guilty who seek the society of fine women, nor 
 are women aU guilty who seek the- society of men. There 
 
THE DEVIL IS IN IT ! 381 
 
 are men who cultivate a purely moral passion for one or more 
 women. I once heard even an acknowledged rake say that 
 he himself did so, and that the women he liked above all 
 others were such women. The spell is broken by going 
 further. This refinement may not be common, but I can 
 perfectly well imagine how Lord Melbourne may have been 
 personally attached, even romantically attached, to Mrs. 
 Norton, and yet free from all reproach, and I can believe 
 it of others as well as of him. But whether this be a reality 
 or not, there can be no doubt of this fact, that so long as we 
 have mixed society at all there must be jealousy, and the 
 man who marries a fine woman begins immediately to be 
 haunted with a host of disagreeable visions, and to enter into 
 a series of schemes for self-protection which cannot fail to 
 be disagreeable to any lady's feeUngs, and run counter to her 
 own designs. I do not see how it can be avoided. The 
 devil is in it. The Orientals knew that well, and just locked 
 women up, and forbade the association of the two sexes as it 
 is practised in the AVest. The ladies in the West have accom- 
 phshed their emancipation from this restraint, and they 
 want more emancipation. But how they are to escape from 
 the green eyes of jealousy, and protect themselves from its 
 effects, I cannot imagine, unless by doing as the Thibetian 
 ladies do, disfiguring their faces, and making themselves as 
 ugly as possible, — an excellent and effectual system. But 
 the civilised system of female decoration is an infallible 
 receipt for destroying peace on earth and good-will amongst 
 men, and nothing short of miraculous Providence will ever 
 improve the social condition of individuals and families so 
 long as it prevails. And it must prevail, so there is no hope 
 for us. God be praised that we are not immortal : I should 
 be sorry to make use of the elixir of immortality, even if I 
 had it. 
 
 * Though my ink be black, my devils are still blue enough. 
 But I don't think I shall trouble you any more with the 
 violet ink, and certainly never with blue, which I dislike. 
 
1S53 
 
 382 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 * Trusting that you are deriving both corporeal and psychi- 
 cal benefit from the Dee water and the mountain air, I 
 remain, as ever, yours sincerely, 'J. E. Smith.' 
 
 ' My Dear Lady Buhver, — I have sent you a copy 
 of the Times, with ^Ir. Norton's history of his domestic 
 afflictions. 
 
 25th Aug. ' If his edition be correct, she is a what shall I call 
 
 her ? something not very pleasing to ears polite. But I 
 daresay we shall have another edition ere long, for now that 
 our legislators are on the moors, the papers are at a loss for 
 interesting news. 
 
 ' The Daily News calls the affair the Drawing-room Pot 
 and Kettle affair, or Low Life Above Stairs ; and hopes, as the 
 two belligerents have £4500 between them, that they will 
 henceforth contrive to pay their tradesmen's bills, without 
 troubling the public with any of the particulars. And 
 seeing that they consented before the holy man and the 
 altar to take each other for better, for worse, they ought to 
 be dumb and open not their mouths. Some, however, think 
 that the marriage vow does not interdict conjugal quarrel- 
 ling, as it merely binds the parties to take what they get. 
 "Women are devils when their backs are up. I should not like 
 to come in conflict with one in open court. They get up 
 such a scene, that a man has no chance with them. I hope 
 there is a separate hell for both sexes. It will be an awful 
 scene if there is not. We are of our father the devil, as the 
 Scriptures say ; and there is not a plainer text in the Bible 
 than that. I am just going into the country for a day or two, 
 and will not answer your last letter at present. Mr. Norton's, 
 however, will be a very good substitute till I return. I am 
 glad to hear that Rebecca is well, and that she is not yet 
 chained to a devil. — With kind remembrances to her when 
 you write, I remain, yours on both sides of the grave, 
 
 ' J. Smith.' 
 
NOT A LITERARY MAN AT ALL. 383 
 
 ' My Dear Lady Lytton, — I send you t'other side of the 2mi Sept. 
 question, in order that the lady may have justice done her. 
 
 W or not I do not condemn her, as I beHeve there are 
 
 worse women and even men than w s in the world, and 
 
 so thought the Saviour when he gave them the precedence 
 to scribes, of whom I am one. I think there can be little 
 doubt that he himself, that is, Norton, is a bit of the great 
 man-monster. 
 
 ' You call yourself an ass for asking me the favour of 
 negotiating a matter of business for you with a publisher. 
 Perhaps it did not show much wisdom on your part to select 
 so incompetent a person, for I may say that I do not know 
 a single publisher, and have scrupulously kept aloof from 
 the whole fraternity. As I told you before, I do not con- 
 sider myself a literary man at all at all. I am only a 
 Robinson Crusoe in literature, and live on a desert island. 
 I am therefore not at all adapted for negotiation, but what 
 I am capable of doing well I am very willing to do for your 
 Ladyship, only the difficulty is to discover what it is that I 
 am capable of doing well. The usual way of transacting 
 such matters now is to emj^loy a commissioner. There are 
 men who undertake this office for a small percentage in case 
 of success. As they make it a business, and move about, 
 and talk freely, and have plenty of cheek, which is more 
 than I have, they learn to manage such matters very 
 adroitly, and it is not necessary that the person should know 
 who the author is, as the author's name may be concealed 
 behind a confidential person's opaque or lay figure. By 
 adopting this plan you may be metamorphosed back again 
 from the noble and sacred animal whom you now soi- 
 disantement represent, to your own authentic and pulchrior 
 visu personality. 
 
 ' I am happy to hear that you are about to personify our 
 august sex, and show us what we ought to be. I hope you 
 will not be too sore upon us, however, but remember that as 
 we show mercy to others we hope to obtain it for ourselves. 
 
384 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERS ALIST. 
 
 Severe judges will be severely judged. So blame the devil 
 whenever you possibly can, and admit of extenuating cir- 
 cumstances for both man and woman so often as justice and 
 mercy in cordial agreement will permit. The provocations 
 are great you know, and the temj)tations are great you are 
 well aware, and it is a difficult task to go through the world 
 without being misled either by persuasion or provocation 
 from without, or by excitement or incitement from within. 
 Life to me has been a struggle, and still is, and I know 
 many and hear from many to whom it is an awful burden, 
 a burden to which even annihilation itself would be pre- 
 ferred. ]\rany more are driven to madness by it than the 
 lists of the lunatic asylums enumerate. Private and un- 
 declared madness is very abundant, and not likely to be 
 reduced in amount by the jDrogress of what men call civilisa- 
 tion. Civilisation is merely the outward covering of bar- 
 barism, and like baptismal regeneration it washes iniquity 
 in instead of out. All attempts to wash the nigger white 
 have yet failed. Therefore be merciful. — Yours, &c., 
 
 'J. E. Smith.' 
 
 13th Sept. ' My Dear "Wife, — I accept the title with which you have 
 
 honoured me, and claim the privilege of abusing you hence- 
 forth whenever I feel disposed. That will not be often I 
 hojDe, but it is a comfort to think that I enjoy the right. I 
 am glad to find that, brute and beast as I am, and must 
 henceforth be, like the rest of my sex, we agree upon some 
 points, that with me you believe that hatred is merely the 
 shadow of love, and perhaps that Love is nothing more than 
 
 the mask of hatred Dog I am, and dog I must 
 
 be, and must ever be despised and contemned by you for 
 not being a woman. It is frightful to look into such a vista 
 of the future, and galling to think that I should be so 
 severely punished for bemg what God himself made me. 
 But there are martyrs for all things, and martyrs for sex 
 too ; and if I should be martyred for representing in my 
 
F. Herald. 
 
 AN AFFLICTED 'HUSBAND.' 385 
 
 own person a faithful and true picture of my own sex, T 
 shall have my reward. I am so trained to sorrow, for I 
 have heen a man of sorrow from time immemorial, that a 
 little more will add little to the weight, but it may still be 
 sufficient to complete the martyrdom and give me possession 
 of the crown ; and as a man can find in this world no greater 
 enemy than his wife, I think I have found my executioner 
 now, that is, if she prove faithful to herself and her sex. 
 
 ' I am happy to hear that you have still a little mercy left. 
 In that there is hope for others if not for me, except in a 
 sanguinary sense, for a leech betokens still greater blood- 
 thirstiness than that of the pin, which is comparatively 
 harmless. I am glad that you like my thoughts upon China Essay i 
 though you despise myself. By and by my thoughts will 
 be all that is left of me, and I shall myself get rid of what 
 perhaps I detest even more than you do — my own person. — 
 Meanwhile, believe me to be your own despised and aifiicted 
 
 ' Husband.' 
 
 * Beatrice Beata e Carissima, — I am very sorry to hear nth Sept. 
 of your ailment, but judging from the usual beauty of the ^^''^' 
 handwriting, I have reason to hope that it is not unto death. 
 Were you a member of the male fraternity, the fact of your 
 being brought to bed by a cold, or anything short of some 
 grave commissioner from tlie three fatal sisters, might prove 
 a cause of some little astonishment. But women take to 
 bed so very naturally that they often die before people 
 believe that there is much the matter with them. It is 
 their sovereign remedy. I should think it time for me to 
 make my will if I were bedded at noonday. But ladies go 
 to bed at all hours, and even take breakfast and write 
 letters in bed, which I never do. Don't suppose I grudge 
 you the comfort and the remedy. I am too happy to think 
 that they are both at your disposal. But still I fear that 
 depression of spirit, weariness and ennui, and want of strong 
 motive to be up in a more active position, are as much to be 
 
 2c 
 
386 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 charged with your supine condition as the fruits of the 
 picnic. 
 Continuing ' I must tell vou a dream I had on my wedding-night, the 
 joko. only bit of comfort I had on the occasion. It was a very 
 
 short one, hut it made so vivid an impression that I remem- 
 ber it as if it were a matter of historical and material reality. 
 I saw a lady, fine-looking, healthy lady, in full dress and 
 bonnet, with a rope about her neck. She had put her own 
 head in the noose, and the rope was attached to the ceiling. 
 She asked me if I would help her to hang herself. I said I 
 would, and went near and took hold of her, and told her, as 
 the rope was just about an inch too long, to bend her knees 
 and hold up her feet. She did so, and swung very nicely for 
 a little. Then she put her feet to the ground and stood 
 erect, and said she could not do it. I then began to reason 
 with her, and asked her if it was necessary that she should 
 die. Oh no, she said ; not at all necessary. And thus we 
 continued talking very comfortably together, when the 
 
 dream vanished 
 
 I am glad you defer the fight for some time, for I am 
 rather afraid of it at present, the more so as I am very 
 much excited with another subject. 
 
 * I am seriously engaged in writing a book ; not a squib 
 like the last, to which I did not mean to put my name, but 
 something on which I mean to rest my reputation for genera- 
 tions yet unborn. 
 
 * It is on a solemn, and I think it will prove an interesting 
 subject. I hope to have it finished by Christmas. It wiU 
 be merely one volume. Last week I was so deeply immersed 
 in it that I began to fear that it would fever me before I could 
 complete it. I became so excited, and forgot everything, 
 and would sit at it from breakfast-time till bed-time, and 
 then go to bed without being able to sleep. I fear this. I 
 have known by sad experience the effects of it, and mean to 
 guard against it. But if, in addition to all this, I should 
 have a domestic quarrel, it would be too much for me ; so if 
 
A PATIENT AXD INDULGENT SPIRIT! 387 
 
 you have no objection to put off the broil till Christmas, I 
 shall be much indebted to you, and take it as an earnest of 
 that patient and indulgent spirit which is far more beautiful 
 and becoming, both in man and woman, than either military 
 prowess or controversial skill. 
 
 ' The subject is a very fine one ; and if I succeed in giving 
 expression to my own ideas of it, I have no doubt whatever 
 that it will improve my position in many respects. I have 
 been writing for the many long enough without being per- 
 sonally heard of. Xow I mean to write for the few, and give 
 myself a status ; for though it is very probable that I may 
 be damned by some, I feel morally certain that I will gain 
 the approbation of others. I actually thought, when I com- 
 menced the book, that I was but half a man, and unfit for 
 such a task. Now, however, that I am complete, I hope 
 the omen is good, and that the woman who was hrought unto 
 the man will present him with the good and not the evil 
 fruit. She has both in her power ; for though all that I said See letter 
 of woman in my last be true, her medal has its reverse, and isss.' 
 there is no greater or purer enjoyment for man, in this or 
 the other life, than that which he receives through the 
 instrumentality of woman. 
 
 ' I see Sir J. Bailey has inserted a stunning letter in the 
 Times against Norton. It makes quite a rascal of him. 
 He speaks very highly of Mrs. Norton, and regards her as 
 an injured and innocent woman. This I believe is now the 
 general opinion, and nobody seems to give any credit what- 
 ever to the story of Sidney Herbert and the £600 a year ; 
 for if there was any truth in it, Norton would have adduced 
 it against her, as he could not have failed to hear of it. But 
 I care not which is true, though I always prefer to give the 
 ladies the favourable side of the question in such matters, so 
 long as there are any plausible appearances to warrant me in 
 so doing. I am determined, so long as I live, to lean to the 
 side of mercy, and leave judgment to God. 
 
 * Hoping that you are getting on prosperously with your 
 
388 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 sermons, and showing no appearance of any wrath or personal 
 inquietude in the use of your points and the appHcation of 
 your stinging nettles, — I remain, your dutiful, and I trust . 
 successful, counsellor and friend, ' Friar Benedict.' 
 
 •23i(i Sept. t Beatrice mia ! del Divina Dramma se non della Divina 
 
 1803. 
 
 Commedia. I admire your taste in not choosing to identify 
 yourself with the Beatrice of the Divine Farce. A monstrous 
 production, in any of whose trilogical spheres I should be very 
 sorry for mine or me to hold a place, however exalted. To 
 live in such a heaven and look down on such a hell is 
 enough to make an archangel or even a woman curse God 
 and call out for annihilation. I would rather make a Heathen 
 Goddess of you. What say you to the name of Juno 1 She 
 was a splendid woman, and came out strong when she did 
 come out. Minerva will not do for you, for she was a maid, 
 yet her splendid armour and her gorgeous shield, that made 
 man tremble and armies run, are well adapted for the part 
 you seem most anxious to perform. But Juno has a husband, 
 and can fight like Pallas when she will. I used when a boy 
 to think of Juno, with the beautiful arms, and wondered 
 that Paris gave the preference to Venus, so entirely devoted 
 to the animal nature of man. But she was difficult to 
 manage, Juno was. She even sneered at the thunderbolts of 
 Jove. The Cloud-Compeller could compel anything but 
 her ; and she had her own way with poor Troy at the last, 
 notwithstanding the will and strong endeavour of Jove to 
 save it. But how shall I be able to play the part of the 
 Thunderer, in such a way as that you may laugh at it, at 
 all events, as Juno did ? and if the world Avill not condescend 
 to tremble, it is because ice will not condescend to show it 
 our power. It will be a new occupation, thundering, to me ; 
 but having now got a provocation, I suppose I must try. 
 
 'You must not expect me to come out so soon as 
 Christmas. I hope to be able to finish the manuscript by 
 that time, and then the chief labour will be over, but it will 
 
RIDING ON A DEVIL. 389 
 
 not be till the beginning of the ensuing spring that I shall 
 be able to appear in full feather. It will be about the time 
 when the birds begin to woo, I hope. I am working very hard, 
 and grudge every hour that I devote to anything extraneous ; 
 and were it not for my health, I could patiently, and even 
 energetically, sit and write from morn till midnight. 
 
 ' I am glad to hear that you are so actively engaged in the 
 works of charity and of mercy. I envy you the possession of 
 a heart for such a generous employment of your time. It 
 would cover a multitude of imperfections, according to 
 Scripture, and I suppose you do not expect me to flatter 
 you so very butteraceously as to say that you have none. I 
 am glad, however, to think that you have got a cloak to cover 
 them, better than any of those needlewomen's productions, 
 the want of which you so lately deplored. 
 
 ' I hope, when you do come out strong, that you do not Buiwer. 
 mean to come out riding on a devil, because you must be 
 aware that the present age has lost its faith in devils, and 
 does not look upon them with that holy fear and sacred 
 reverence with which our ancestors espied the monsters. 
 Let it be a fine, spirited Arabian, not a centaur, or a huge 
 Bellerophon, nor a tiger-like Ariadne, the wife of Bacchus, 
 tame as hers was, nor a Satyr, nor anything utterly 
 unsympathetic with man ; for, after all, you belong to the 
 genus homo yourself, and in your new masculine capacity 
 will be quite en homme. 
 
 * But Juno will have her own way, I doubt not. So I 
 leave her to the Three Sisters, and subscribe myself her affec- 
 tionate Spouse and Brother, ' The Cloud-Compeller. 
 
 ' Respect this.' 
 
 * My Dear Hera, — It was too bad of you to send me to Greek for 
 hell so soon. I certainly expected to be tantalised at last, 3rd dct. 
 but to be put on the wheel in the very lowest abyss, by 
 
 one stroke of your pen, without any warning or transition 
 state of coolness or indifference, was what I did not con- 
 
390 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 template at all, and I did not expect the doom of 
 Tantalus before Christmas at least. But woman was always 
 known to be cruel by nature, and fond of exercising 
 her power by creating fear amongst the many, and love 
 only amongst the few. I belong to the oi polloi I suppose, 
 or I would never have been sentenced to so frightful a 
 doom as that of Ixion's wheel. But I will not follow your 
 example of cruelty by taking revenge; I will rather show you 
 an example of forgiveness by returning good for evil. At 
 first I thought of dragging you down to Tantalus after me 
 and making you the Queen of the Dismals — Proserpine 
 by name, and taking my seat beside you, under the grim 
 appellation of Pluto. But I must refer that to some 
 future period. It would seem too much like retaliation to 
 do it now. 
 
 *I return you the letter of Caroline Fieski, or whatever 
 her name may be. She is a mother, and must be indulged a 
 little. Mothers are all selfish creatures, and very disagree- 
 able except to their own sprouts. Marriage spoils all the 
 romance and poetry of the sex, and therefore novelists all 
 do well to close with the marriage before the brats arrive. 
 Literature would not have been light but heavy literature if 
 the heroes and heroines had been Caroline Fieski's. 
 Commend me rather, Protestant as I am, to a sister of 
 mercy, and who looks the Devil and Death boldly in the 
 face, and yields to the natural promptings of sympathy. I 
 hope you have succeeded in curing your patients, and that 
 also with impunity to yourself. I should be sorry to hear 
 of your being laid up or thrown down in such a generous 
 warfare, but better even that than, coward-like, to run and 
 leave the sick to take care of themselves. 
 
 ' So you are not properly domiciled yet ? You are like a 
 rolling stone — you will never gather moss ; but, what with 
 your washing and your rubbing and your rolling, you will 
 become as smooth, but I hope not as hard, as a pebble. You 
 are now, I suppose, about to go to your 17 county castle. 
 
A 'SNIFF OF CALLER AIR.' 391 
 
 Tliat is one movement, and the movement from the castle is 
 another, and the movement to the hotel is a third, and it is a 
 common saying that three flittings are as bad as a fire ; no 
 Avonder, then, that you will want plenty of cold water — it is 
 just the specific that the evil requires. And what will be 
 the next move 1 Here am I, as fixed as a lamp-post, in the 
 same identical spot in which I wrote my first letter to you, 
 and in that short time I can scarcely even enumerate the 
 various residences from which you have written to me ; and 
 as I do not keep letters but destroy all that do not contain 
 some special fact which I consider it of importance to re- 
 member, I shall find it no easy matter to write your life if 
 you should take it into your head to re-ascend to Olympus She lived 
 before me. You are something like Cain — a fugitive, but 
 not a vagabond on the face of the earth ; the likeness is only 
 a profile. Eut if it be really true what the Psalmist says, 
 that the wicked flourish like the green bay tree, and the 
 righteous only are opprest, then you have great reason to 
 rejoice in your tribulation, and that here you have no 
 continuing city, no fixed place of abode. 
 
 ' I have been down in Kent for two days seeing the hops, 
 but I had frightful weather. The snifi" of caller air, how- 
 ever, and a cool drive of some twenty miles in a gig, refreshed 
 me a little, and I contemplate another short trip ere long 
 to Oxford, Warwick, and Birmingham, amongst the hotel- 
 keepers. But I shall take care they do not skin me much 
 by not taking muckle skin alang wi' me. 
 
 * With my blessing, if it be worth accepting, I remain, as 
 heretofore, 'ISI"ot Ixion.' 
 
 ' My Dear Lady Lytton, — It seems you are in trouble again 2nd Dec 
 — in the hands of the dissector too — a man who cuts up to Lady 
 human flesh with as much sang-froid as one might cut an uangoUon. 
 orange. It is a sad predicament — what guardian spirit has 
 brought you into that condition, and for what good purpose 
 could it have been ordained 1 Did you require the chasten- 
 
892 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 ing hand, or is it merely an act of spite on the part of an 
 undeveloped spirit, as the American manifesters call the 
 mischievous ones? I hope it will do you good, although it 
 is a very uncomfortable mode of receiving it. "Who can 
 tell 1 We are a mystery to ourselves, and bodily good comes 
 as frequently out of bodily evil as flowers from roots. 
 
 ' " The root may have a bitter taste, 
 But sweet may be the flower," 
 
 says CoAvper, and it is to be hoped the truth of this saying 
 may be realised in your present case. It was a very pretty 
 idea that of yours respecting the root being cut aw^ay from 
 one in the loss of a parent. It leaves one alive without an 
 apparent origin. I was half tempted, so long as my mother 
 lived, to regard myself as a boy, as a man ivifJwitt a ivife is 
 very apt to do ; but now I must think no more of boyhood, 
 for I feel myself in the front ranks, just before the long 
 scythe of Death, the forlorn hope ; my time comes next ; the 
 generation beyond are pushing us out; and occupying our 
 places. How^ever, I don't consider the old gentleman as the 
 King of Terrors. I am getting familiarised wath him, and 
 prepared for him ; and I hope, when he comes, I shall be able 
 to hold out my hand in a friendly w^ay, and say, I am happy 
 to see you, old feller. 
 
 * I have no news to tell you. The papers are full of war, 
 but the killing goes on very slowdy. I think they pop one 
 another from behind the ramparts, and take care of Xo. 1, 
 as I should do were I a murderer. But many, I daresay, 
 who deserve hanging will be shot, and none, according to 
 your estimate of us unfortunate males, will meet an un- 
 deserved fate. However, if people are better off after death 
 than before it, we should rather keep rascals alive, than kill 
 them and give them a happy release. — Hoping that this 
 will find you well again, I remain, yours as ever, 
 
 *J. Smith.' 
 
MY DEAR dreadnought! 393 
 
 * My Dear Dreadnought,— What, then, am I to do ? I am 24tii Dec. 
 still puzzled. Remember that although your meanmg may To Lian- 
 be very clear to your own mind, it must be expressed before 
 it can come clearly into mine. You gave me some general 
 idea of the book, but not of its size or value, nor did you 
 empower me to negotiate for you ; and my only idea of the 
 matter was this, that you wanted a publisher who would 
 publish on his own responsibility, and with whom you could 
 negotiate afterwards. I believe the book would be well 
 published by Bosworth, and that you would be as well dealt 
 with by him as by any man in London. I have heard him 
 very highly spoken of. But that is all I know. But if you 
 want a sum of money instanter, without a sight of the 
 manuscript, or any further knowledge of it than you have 
 transmitted to me, it may turn out to be a very tardy nego- 
 tiation. However, if you will only state your own terms, or 
 write me something which I can show to a publisher, I shall 
 go with the conditions to Bosworth, or any other whom you 
 may think a likely person to take the bait. But remember 
 this, that you have often told me that your husband had 
 corrupted or threatened the London publishers, and set them 
 against you by direct and indirect means, and this intima- 
 tion of yours makes one a little apprehensive lest in making 
 a call it should only be to one of the gang. My firm belief 
 is that you will make much more of the book by just giving 
 it to Bosworth to publish on his own responsibility, giving 
 him a share of the profits. He holds a much higher position 
 in the trade than either of your two last publishers, who are 
 little known. However, a publisher who has published for 
 you before knows the mercantile value of your book in the 
 market. A stranger does not; for unless a book runs 
 through several editions and makes a sensation, the trade 
 cannot tell whether it be a loss or a gain to the publisher. 
 In going, therefore, to a publisher for the first time after 
 changing your publisher so often, you give up the ground 
 you have previously gained, and begin de novo, always dis- 
 
394 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 advantageous, for the first question naturally is, " Why does 
 she change her publisher, and why so often 1 " and suspicions, 
 once aroused, can never be allayed by reasoning, for it is like 
 reasoning to a jealous woman — the more you reason, the more 
 she is not convinced. However, give me definite instruc- 
 tions and I will follow them, and bother you no more with 
 my preliminaries. — Yours ever, 'J. Smith.' 
 
 6th Jan 
 18-34. 
 
 ' My Dear Aleiphron, — I have been wondering what has 
 become of you. I hope you are still alive and well, notwith- 
 standing the lugubrious import of your last, which I scarcely 
 knew whether to take in a serious or an unserious meaning. 
 But as I have been looking out every day for the parcel, I 
 begin now to fear that it was quite true, and that I shall 
 have to wear black for more reasons than one. However, 
 you shall rejoice even if I should mourn. At least so I 
 hope, for I do not suppose that you will go to the Terra del 
 Fuego. However, I shall hope for the best until I hear the 
 worst. Now that the holidays are nearly over, and this is 
 She died in old Christmas-day, I bid you God-speed with all your good 
 year. ^ eudeavours, and my hearty wishes that you may not live a 
 hundred years, but make your escape from this inferior stage 
 of spiritual and physical being into some more elevated 
 region, where you will have more loves and fewer hatreds, 
 for it is awful to live where loves are in the minority, or 
 even where they have a large minority, and I suspect 
 that your loves are very few, seeing that you hate the 
 whole of our sex, and if I mistake not, almost the whole 
 of your own. Thank God that you are fond of dogs and 
 other wise, moral, and indulgent animals, otherwise there 
 would not be a single oasis in the desert left for your soul to 
 smile upon. 
 
 * I had half a mind to send back your queen's heads, only I 
 admired the delicacy of the act of sending them. All your 
 sex do not treat me so. One lady last year asked me to get 
 her a box at the theatre. I did so, and she complained of 
 
LITTLE FEMININE PECULIARITIES. 395 
 
 it, she did not like it, but she has never offered to pay for it 
 
 to this day. I had not even the satisfaction of being invited Troubles of 
 
 . , . 1 1 J • > ^ bachelor. 
 
 to share it. Another once asked me to receive a mercer s 
 parcel and send it. I did so, and have now lost all hope of 
 repayment. Another borrowed £6 from me, and paid me 
 with a five pound note. But our sex is quite as bad. So 
 that when I meet a scrupulous person I entertain a respect 
 for it, as something to be cherished. However, I do believe charitable 
 the above-mentioned ladies forgot, for they are m good, easy 
 circumstances, and also generous-minded. — Hoping ere long 
 to hear of your recovery, and manuscript, I remain, yours 
 ever, 'J. Smith.' 
 
 * After sending out your letter to the post last night, I dis- [fj'-^"- 
 covered that I had omitted to inclose the inclosed. I hope 
 you have it now safe in hand ; it is a singular production, 
 mysterious and humbuggical-looking. Why not tell all ? Why 
 mystify so 1 It is provokingly woman-like — gipsy-like, I 
 mean. She is no great shakes at writing : what she may be 
 personally I cannot surmise, but I should not fall in love 
 with her for her accomplishments, I guess. But I once heard 
 
 a rake say that he. did not like accomplished women 
 
 He considered them above that sort of thing, and he always 
 treated them with profound respect. Perhaps the gentleman 
 alluded to may be one of that sort if the woman be what 
 you seem to insinuate. But these are deep subjects, of which 
 I am no judge, only they seem to cause a goodly amount of 
 botheration to both sexes. I see, from the American papers, 
 that they are trying to preach up celibacy there, even 
 amongst the Liberals. I should not wonder if marriage 
 should encounter a revolution some day. There is none in 
 heaven, you know ; there men and women make love to each 
 other just as they please without restraint, for there is no 
 generation there. It is generation that plays the devil with 
 the world. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is called the 
 Regeneration, which, whatever it be, is not generation. Of 
 
396 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 that I am very glad, for I consider it the very devil. — It is 
 quite dark, and I have only light to sign myself, yours ever, 
 
 •J. Smith.' 
 
 ofh Jan. * My Dear Lady Lytton, — Your parcel has arrived. I 
 
 understand it all now. It came by one of Mudie's agents, 
 and as Mudie sends books to me every Monday, he kept it 
 by him till Monday came. And thus it has been lying all 
 the past week in his shop, in place of being put into the 
 parcels delivery office and despatched immediately. How- 
 ever, I am glad it has arrived, and will not call him a beast 
 for overlooking it, as I know he has quite enough to puzzle 
 him, for he promises more than he performs, like myself. 
 
 ' I shall try and not forget your letters this Aveek ; they are 
 both lying before my nose, but that is no security, for I am 
 so absorbed that I forget everything, and feel myself unfit to 
 be entrusted with anything. And then, you ladies are such 
 merciless judges and critics. I have more fear of one woman 
 than of ten men. 
 
 ' I am sorry to hear of the continued accumulation of your 
 miseries, and of the addition of another item to your list of 
 hatreds. I fear it is not one of the least sources of your 
 misery. But we must all fulfil our destiny and drink the 
 cup. However, we never fail to help to fill it ourselves, as I 
 can testify in my own experience ; for, with all my Scotch 
 caution, I have got my foot into many a bog, which with a 
 
 Irish. little more caution I might have avoided. Your nation are 
 
 particularly famed for getting into scrapes. But I suppose 
 they get out of them also, though often with broken heads 
 and empty purses. But it is life, game, sport, and all that sort 
 of thing. They like it, and why should not you also, if you 
 like the cause of it, and hate the caution that avoids it ? — 
 Yours ever, ' J. Smith.' 
 
 18M '^^°' ' '^^ Dear Mistress, — I suspected that there was something 
 
 To LiaH- wrong as soon as I received yours this morning. So I wrote 
 
 cluduo. ° JO 
 
THERE MUST BE A DEVIL. 897 
 
 immediately to Bosworth, and told him I would call personally 
 to-day. Well, off I went in due time in an omnibus, and have 
 just returned, all to no purpose. I did not see him, and 
 there was no message left ; he had not received my letter, for 
 he was out all day, and would not be in till six. So I will 
 call to-morrow. I was under an impression that you were 
 in correspondence with him, as last week I sent him my 
 address, stating that if not in correspondence with you, he 
 might notify to me what his determination was, to which 
 letter I have not received an answer. I begin to fear that 
 I have not even sent him my address. I am not at all 
 inclined to blame him in the matter, for I think he is very 
 civil, and naturally obliging, and especially to your sex, for 
 you have all the honours and we have none, unless we are 
 in office and have it in our power to confer favours, which we 
 seldom have. I shall write you again to-morrow. I have 
 been distracted for some time with faceache, and called on a 
 dentist on my way home ; he says it is a cold in a tooth that 
 he stopped a year ago. It seems the artificial teeth have 
 more feeling than the natural ones. There must be a devil. 
 ' I think fate has taken us both in her grip at once, for a 
 fatality has attended my book for a whole month. They 
 ordered new type for the notes, it was promised in four days. 
 In about a fortnight some of it came, the rest was on the 
 road. In a week afterwards the rest came, and then the 
 letter N was wanting. They had to send to Scotland, where 
 the foundry is, for it, and it was promised on Monday last, 
 and it only came to-day. A whole month has been lost in 
 this manner. It is very provoking. However, all but a 
 few notes of five sheets were set up, so that it is not all 
 lost time. But it has kept me a whole month in suspense. 
 They begin to print to-morrow, however, unless Miss Fortune 
 has another lark with me. I hope she will turn the tables 
 for us both soon. However, there is no use in grumbling ; I 
 like a cheerful spirit. So don't send me a mourning letter ; I 
 will allow you to begin it mourn ingly if you please, as black 
 
398 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERS ALIST. 
 
 as midnight, but remove the veil of darkness before you 
 close, as you look a thousand times more beautiful smiling 
 than frowning ; and now that you have got a tail, wag it, and 
 show that there's humour in it, not bad humour. 
 
 * Those are kind letters of the Chevalier. He is a nice old 
 gentleman. But then he belongs to a polished nation. I 
 am a bear — from the North — Boreas, a cold wind. But you 
 and I seem to have exchanged positions, and you are as 
 familiar with snow and ice as I am with Scotch prudence ; 
 you have your snow and ice outside, I have it inside. But 
 it does not do for all the world to be alike. You and I 
 would have quarrelled long ago if we had even resembled 
 one another, for we should have been a pair of bellows to 
 each other's fire, or we should have thrown snowballs at each 
 other till the ice broke. But I see the hour of post has 
 arrived, and the printer's devil has just brought me a proof, 
 with a surly intimation that it is wanted as soon as (possible). 
 So, what with ladies on one side of me and devils on the 
 other, I am in a pretty hurry, and you knaw what the Scotch 
 
 poet says — 
 
 ' " They gallop fast whom 
 Deils and lasses drive " — 
 
 which accounts for the haste with which I subscribe myself, 
 your obedient servant, ' J. Smith. 
 
 * Don't mention trouble any more. I like neither praise 
 nor blame for doing my duty.' 
 
 'My Dear Lady Lytton, — I enclose Bosworth's answer. 
 He declines, and has returned the MS., which is now in my 
 possession, sealed up, or as good as sealed up as at first. 
 
 * What is to be done next is for you to decide. I shall be 
 happy to call on any other whom you may name, but I shall 
 prefer you naming some one, as I am well aware of the 
 delay that will be the result of another experiment, and do 
 not like to undertake the responsibility of it. It seems I 
 have been unlucky with my first attempt, and I fear that 
 
I AM AN AWFUL COWARD. 390 
 
 not much luck will attend any of my efforts, for I am a bad 
 man of business, not being a fighting, driving, pushing, and 
 urging fellow — the best sort of man for a negotiation in 
 London. I expect a very indignant letter from you next 
 time, and with some reason, for I do not think that Bosworth 
 has behaved well ; not in declining, for that is optional with 
 every publisher, but simply with keeping the MS. so long. 
 — I remain, yours ever, ' J. Smith.' 
 
 ' You arc an awful woman ! 
 
 * You have begun to talk about fighting already. Whatever 
 can put such mischief into your head 1 I hope you are not 
 going to put me in the front of the battle of Bosworth Field. 
 But even if you do, I am pretty sure you will be there 
 yourself, and not like Queen Mary of Scotland, sitting on 
 your saddle at a distance ready to run whenever the tide of 
 war was against you. I said nothing about money to the 
 man Bosworth, and I do not suppose he would be inclined 
 to buy the manuscript, but merely to publish it for you at 
 his risk. He is a young man only commencing business ; 
 and though spirited in his way, I do not think he is a man 
 of capital, to pay large sums at once. Nevertheless, I have 
 heard him highly spoken of, and I was advised by a friend 
 who knew something of him to ask him to publish my book, 
 which I possibly may, though I would prefer a publisher 
 who has a house in America, as I expect as much sale for 
 my book in the United States as here. It was on that 
 account that I thought of Bailliere, though he is not very 
 suitable in other respects. But I suppose you mean to send 
 the manuscript before any negotiations are entered into. 
 You say nothing about that, and I do not know what your 
 custom is in that respect. Bosworth expects to see the 
 manuscrii)t before any arrangements are made. After that 
 you can correspond with him yourself, and fight with him in 
 close combat. I should like to keep clear of the fight ; I am 
 an awful coward. 
 
400 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 * ]\ry book is in the printer's hands, and from Christmas I 
 expect to be weekly provided with two or more sheets of 
 proof. It will take three months at least to go through the 
 press. I don't want to hurry it, for I want to make it without 
 a literal error if possible. I have not yet finished the 
 manuscript, but I have only a chapter or two of concluding 
 matter to write, and I want to ruminate over it for a little. 
 I have not even sought for a publisher, nor do I mean to do 
 so till perhaps it is nearly through the press. I have taken 
 your advice about the print and paper. It will be got up in 
 the very best style. — I am, yours ever, ' J. Smith.' 
 
 'September 18tk, 1854. 
 
 * P.S. — Woman can easily perceive the offence that she 
 receives, but not what she gives. If man be blind of one eye, 
 woman is blind of the other. I admire the sagacity of the 
 devil in choosing woman for his instrument. He could not 
 possibly discover a better, nor one more likely to lead man 
 astray : of all the torments that God has inflicted upon man, 
 woman is the greatest. She was made for a blessing, but 
 marred in the making. A woman once advised me to treat 
 all women alike, for if ever I made a distinction I would 
 repent. The heart of woman is prone to mischief, and she 
 wraps herself up in a moral miasma, poisonous to the soul 
 of man and ruinous to his body. God grant that her re- 
 generation be not far distant : with woman as she is, I have 
 no hope of even a comfortable existence. Strange epithala- 
 mium for my wedding-day, but not more strange than true. 
 
 ' However, I believe in regeneration, though not in peni- 
 tence for a fault that is not perceived ; and though I cannot 
 forgive a fault that is not owned, for it is ever committed 
 until it be owned, yet I can at least refrain from taking 
 revenge. — Yours ever, for better or worse, till death do us 
 part.' 
 
 Enclosed. ' Can you tell me the meaning of this letter 1 I have read 
 
 it all over, and don't understand it. Singular to say, your 
 
MISTAKING THE DEVIL FOR GOD. 401 
 
 last came to me along wtih a letter from a gentleman who 
 complained of the life of misery that he led with his wife. 
 She slams the doors and rattles the fire-irons when he reads 
 or writes, smashes dishes, kicks tables and chairs and stools, 
 and she nags and abuses him like a very difficult. He 
 means to leave her as soon as he can provide for her and his 
 children. He says, however, that she is a good mother, and 
 he means to let her have all the children. Her story I have 
 also had from herself. She accuses him of meddling with 
 her religious principles. It seems to be all about the love of 
 God that they are quarrelling ! Probably they have both 
 mistaken the devil for God. A third letter came at the 
 same time. It was from an old maid. It was the very type 
 of comfort. I myself, an old bachelor — at least I was so 
 then, though not now — completed the series. I shall be 
 puzzled what to call myself now. Benedict ! And when I 
 cannot answer Beatrice's wit in kind, I must make it up in 
 change, by giving her silver for her gold. But my resolu- 
 tion is to abuse henceforth your sex so long as you abuse 
 ours, and when you cease I cease. I mean to have no mercy 
 whatever on womankind.' 
 
 We have no further correspondence retained, but it is 
 probable that, being unable to make arrangements with a 
 publisher to meet her wishes, she threw him over, or said 
 something too keen, and perhaps too true, for his spirit to 
 bear. It is evident from the tone of the correspondence 
 that this was always a near possibility with such a high- 
 spirited woman, who ever declined to leave her wrongs in 
 anyone's hands but her own. 
 
 2 D 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 OCCULT STUDIES. 
 
 'Although I have no faith in astrological predictions, I 
 cannot cease from admiring astrology, and regarding it as 
 the germ of some universal science of analogy not yet con- 
 See page 374. ceived, or but faintly figured in the dim and shadowy visions 
 of Genius in a reverie.' 
 
 Given a highly imaginative spiritual mind, trained in all 
 the metaphysical subtleties of the Church of Scotland, sub- 
 jected to the millennial enthusiasm of Edward Irving, driven 
 into the prophetic camp where the Doctrine of the Woman 
 held sway, thence running the gauntlet of all the social and 
 religious ' heresies ' of the time, and we have surely a mind 
 prepared to examine and consider the greatest extravagances 
 of any time ! James Smith considered that whatever pro- 
 ceeded from the mind of humanity emanated from the 
 Divine mind — where else could it come from? Divinity 
 was to him the only motive power. The fact, therefore, that 
 astrology had been an important study with the ancients, 
 that it had passed through the alembic of many generations 
 of cultivated minds, was to him a proof of vitality, and con- 
 sequently of a certain reality. The handling of figures until 
 they became living things, in his mathematical examination 
 of the prophetic numbers, no doubt conduced to this end ; 
 and the analogical faculty that found relationship and 
 similitude between all things animate and inanimate — and, 
 indeed, hardly admitted of the latter term — aided in the for- 
 mation of a Catholic spirit towards all human thought. As 
 he proceeded he formed a sort of Cave of Adullam, to which 
 
THE SANITY OF CHARITY. 403 
 
 a niiiltitiule, often bordering upon lunacy, and sometimes 
 overstepping the boundary, resorted. This correspondence 
 would form a strange and informing volume of itself, but a 
 somewhat sad one ; although occasionally he has preserved 
 some burst of humorous doggrel, or imitative prophecy, as a 
 protest of common sense and the outer world against too 
 constant communings with the shadowings of the Divine 
 mind. But he held that his mind was quite safe. Sec- 
 tarianism may go crazy, but Charity never — was his view of 
 the matter. His Universalism was to keep him sane ! At 
 a very early period he must have imbibed a taste for astro- 
 logy, but the first time he calls special attention to it seems 
 to have been in a letter to his brother, having studied its 
 principles to meet correspondence ! ' Did you ever look at loth Jai 
 the principles of astrology ? I have collected a number of 
 nativities, and learned to read them. They are very in- 
 teresting. It seems to me much more definite and correct 
 than phrenology. I have just got a copy of Lamartine's 
 nativity, and have been applying the rules to it. He is a 
 splendid orator. The rules (thousands of years old, remem- 
 ber) say — a sextile of Mercury and the Moon makes good 
 orators, wits, &c. Well, on looking to his nativity, it strikes 
 you at once. A perfect sextile of Mercury and the Moon — 
 the Moon also in the mid-heaven, an eminent position. 
 There is also a sextile of Mars and the Sun — that also makes 
 orators, poets, &c. He has therefore two oratorical aspects 
 — Mars also is in mid-heaven, an eminent position. But 
 then he has an unfortunate opposition of Saturn and Jupiter. 
 This aspect causes a man to be unfortunate, and to dis- 
 appoint any high expectations that may be formed of him. 
 Louis Philippe I have also. He has Saturn in his 10th 
 house. The rule says a man born with Saturn in his 10th 
 house is liable to reverses of fortune at last, however exalted 
 
 he may be at first It is astonishing what hits are 
 
 made in this respect. I know a lady who last year was told 
 by an astrologer the precise time when she was to be in 
 
404 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 danger of losing her life b}'- an accident. He told her 
 several weeks before the time, and mentioned it to her 
 friends to caution them. Well, precisely at the time, she 
 was walking along Oxford Street, and as she came to a 
 ladder raised for repairing a house, she was struck to the 
 ground by a brick which fell upon her shoulder. She was 
 carried home, and confined to bed and the house for several 
 weeks. The astrologer who foretold this is particularly 
 clever at calculation, but his whole soul is absorbed in it. 
 He thinks of nothing but the planets. If you say to him 
 — ' How do you do, Mr. Johnson 1 ' He very probably replies 
 — ' jS'ot very well — there's an evil deviation — a square of 
 Saturn and the Moon operating upon me at present, but I 
 shall be better in a week or two, when the moon in my 
 nativity comes to a time of Yenus.' I have been taking 
 some lessons from him. Zadkiel (Lieutenant Morison) has 
 published a grammar of astrology, which makes the subject 
 very plain. I bought it many years ago, but paid little 
 attention to it till of late, when, receiving several letters 
 about astrology, and meeting occasionally with persons who 
 know something of it, I considered it my duty to learn the 
 principles. I can now cast a nativity, or set a figure of the 
 heavens. But I should never use it for prognostication of 
 events. For character and general destiny, however, it is 
 worth studying. Napoleon has a splendid Mars in his 
 nativity, which makes him a successful soldier, by all the 
 rules of the science But he has a frightful oppo- 
 sition of Saturn and the Moon, which Johnson and the rule 
 says makes a man cruel, unprincipled, and ultimately unfor- 
 tunate when evil directions fall I know Zadkiel 
 
 personally. He is a gentleman by birth and education, and 
 is married to a lady who is very highly connected. He has 
 an independence of some £250 a year, besides what he 
 makes by the stars, which is not much. Johnson is very 
 poor, but very honest, simple, and inoffensive — the very 
 opposite of a rogue — but he has a most unfortunate nativity 
 
'zadkiel' on 'divination.' 405 
 
 — for fortune. All his planets, too, or the most of them, are 
 huddled together in the 9th House, the House of Mystery ! 
 Faith, Credulity, Superstition, &c. He could scarcely fail 
 to be an astrologer, or something of the sort.' 
 
 Yet he had no such faith in astrology as this would lead 
 one to suppose, and he probably stated his unorthodox 
 views strongly to his orthodox brother, partly from con- 
 trariness, and partly to stir up a reply. 
 
 ' There seems some remarkable analogy between a man's 
 nativity and the general character of his mind, and in this 
 respect it is as clear as phrenology ; but when a calculator 
 comes to reading events and times, he is decidedly at sea, and 
 merely guesses like a woman reading cards or a tea-cup, for 
 instance ; we find that her rules are as definite as his, and her 
 
 signs as precise ; and there is as good reason for 
 
 supposing that the tea-cup is an oracle as that the stars are.' 
 
 There are many letters on astrology and ' spiritualism ' 
 by Morison (Zadkiel), all showing that he was anything but sist Mar. 
 a worldly man. After a discussion on 'spiritualism,' he zadkiei. 
 observes : — ' One good will come out of all this. It will be 
 an antidote to the Sadduceeism and infidelity of the age, 
 and as Providence rules all things, it no doubt has revived 
 all these spiritual matters to overthrow that outwork of 
 Atheism.' In a lengthy discussion of ' Divination,' in which 
 the religious character of the writer's mind is strangely dis- 
 played, Zadkiel proceeds : — ' It seems to me that Divination James 
 is a principle inherent in the human heart. All men use it Di??nation. 
 in some way or other, even those who preach against it, }852.'^^"^ 
 always excepting yourself. It has been ever in use all over 
 the world, among savages and civilised men, from the OH 
 of the Africans to the Pythoness of the refined Greeks, 
 from the Hindoo astrologer to the European star-gazer. 
 All men naturally and necessarily desire to know the future^ 
 the result of their enterprises, sicknesses, sufferings, &c., &c. 
 Surely so strong, so universal, so valuable a feeling could 
 never have arisen in the human breast without the express 
 
406 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 INTENT of Providence ! Solomon expressly speaks thus : 
 " the fools die for want of ivisdom" and surely this implies 
 lack of "foreseeing the evil," as he calls it/ A disputation 
 as to Napoleon's horoscope follows, of a curious character, 
 in which Zadkiel maintains his views against criticism : 
 
 16th Oct. < He has been very popular with the multitude 
 
 R. J.' Moii- since Jupiter has been hanging about his mid-heaven, and 
 iciei.' " they say he is to be Emperor forthwith, which may take 
 place, and yet be no real addition to his power of wealth.' 
 Further, he declares that Napoleon has the same danger in 
 his horoscope as his uncle had, and as Pitt had : ' tliey fell 
 from power, so will he fall.' Zadkiel seems to have a 
 difficulty in indoctrinating his friend with his views. On 
 another occasion he writes : — ' However, clod as you are, I 
 wish I had you here to shake hands.' He is influenced in 
 turn, however, by his friend's opinions. * Your letter of this 
 morning has greatly interested me. I had already concluded 
 that there was a mixture of truth and untruth in these 
 " rapping" affairs ; and I am now certain of it. Just so with 
 See figures. i\^q Crystal spirits. But why sol Your idea is perhaps 
 right, that too much evidence of the spiritual world would 
 do away with the use of judgment. No doubt these various 
 phases of " communion of spirits " have an evd in view. The 
 dire and crass worldliness of mankind may require this 
 balance. The love of pelf and self, and lust of the eye and 
 pride of life, have smothered true faith, of which little is to 
 
 1852 ^^^' ^^ found in the world now-a-days I fear the pro- 
 
 Zadkiei. fessed " commuiiion of spirits " that we hear in the Church 
 is a mockery ; for none I have ever asked could tell me ivhat 
 they did mean when they repeated the words.' The state- 
 ment that, when made lately in Glasgow in connection with 
 the Max Miiller lectures, raised such an outcry, is made 
 here by Zadkiel : ' I find the clergy even very chary of 
 admitting in private all they preach in public. They 
 preach a particular providence ; but ask them to admit it in 
 all things, and they shake their heads.' 
 
20th Nov. 
 1852. 
 
 A SPIRITUAL STANCE. 407 
 
 A congenial lot of ' spirits ' are investigating the new 
 ' spiritual ' phenomena with great interest. Hugh Doherty, 
 AV. H. Halse, R J. Morison, AV. Salter Herrick the 
 portrait painter, and others. The 'mediums' at that 
 period were Mr. and Mrs. Hay den, Manager G. W. Stone, 
 from whom letters arranging meetings are extant. Halse 
 (of Galvanism fame) writes : — ' I shall be glad of Mr. 
 Doherty's company, and dinner with you, say four o'clock ' 
 (Doherty was now a Medical Galvanist and Kinesipathist). 
 ' I cannot reply about Dr. Wilkinson, as Mr. Stone expressed w. ii. Haise. 
 a desire that no one but you and myself should be present. 
 
 I shall give you a roast fowl and some pickled 
 
 pork, and then for the "rappings."' So that Dr. Garth 
 Wilkinson now joined in the enquiry. Mr. Halse has com- 
 menced it in his family circle. Present, 'myself, Sally (1), 
 and her sister.' The results were so satisfactory that he 
 wished the servant to hear them, but the moment she 
 appeared all results stopped. It turned out ' that Mary's 3id Dec. 
 sweetheart was down in the kitchen, and she therefore no 
 doubt wished the whole of us, spirit-rappers included, to the 
 
 old gentleman I hope you have now read 
 
 Dickens' article on the subject. He tells you how it is all 
 done. The whole mystery lies in the fire, the toe-nails, and 
 the shoes ! ! ! ' 
 
 h. Doherty, Halse, and Stone all seem to have started in 
 branches of the same department, and the name Electro- 
 biology is coming in. * I have Mr. Bendall (the lessee of the w. h. Halse. 
 Hall of Science, City Road) as a patient. He is paralysed. i852. 
 He tells me that a Mr. Hardinge, one of his lecturers on 
 Electro-biology, has a patient who must be a moving 
 medium, as balls of cotton will fly out of her lap on to the 
 table, and will move from one table to another without any 
 visible agency.' But Halse says he had lectured the spirits 
 on untruthfulness, and they had quite left him ! 
 
 It is quite certain that they are all men in earnest, investi- 
 gating the new phenomena which were cognate to the 
 
408 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 Galvanism, ^Mesmerism, or Electro-biology with which they 
 were practically acquainted. The claim that ' spirits ' were 
 the prime movers was what upset their calculations, and 
 removed the subject out of their control. 
 31st Jan. ' Dr. Zimpel was with me this morning. He went to Dr. 
 
 Roberts' last evening, and they (that is the Doctor's familiars) 
 have thoroughly convinced him that Mrs.Hayden's rappers are 
 all a parcel of devils. His mother told him at the Doctor's 
 that she was not present at all at Mrs. Hayden's ; that some 
 
 one else rapped in her name This is, however, 
 
 very strange. I think it all depends on the minds of the 
 mediums. Nothing like leather. A fanatical medium can- 
 not conceive the possibility of good spirits communicating 
 through a medium having no religion at all, consequently 
 all her rappers must be devils. A really good medium who 
 does not require to touch the table considers all who cannot 
 get any manifestations without touching the table as 
 impostors. This I believe to be the true explanation.' 
 
 This Dr. Zimpel was an early ' convert ' of James Smith's, 
 who brought him over from Materialism ; he carried on 
 a voluminous correspondence with him from all parts of 
 Europe, as well as Syria, &c. Earnest men all — no im- 
 posture certainly ; but an increasing desire for occult 
 knowledge, or some rational explanation of phenomena. 
 As James Smith has always been considered the ' pioneer ' 
 of spiritualistic phenomena in this country, the subject is 
 interesting. 
 James to ' I have sent a Spirit-Rapping paper, just come out. Xot 
 24th"May intended to be regularly continued, and perhaps not continued 
 '' ■ at all. The subject is exciting great interest here. Table- 
 moving especially prevails. Last night I called on j\Iarston 
 the dramatic poet, and we all, Mrs. Marston, Mrs. Crowe 
 (Nightside of ISTature), Mrs. Hervey, wife of editor of 
 Athenaeum, and myself and another, sat down to a table, 
 and in a short time it moved very freely and answered a 
 great many questions I hear that Robert 
 
A SPIRITUAL TELEGRAPH. 409 
 
 Chambers' five daughters are all rapping-mcdiums, though 
 
 the journal speaks timidly on the subject We 
 
 had it beautifully last night, all private, no professional 
 medium present. I know persons who can get an answer 
 from a chest of drawers ; the bureau Avill rise up and come 
 down with a thump, and large dining-tables run along the 
 floor under some mediums.' These were what Mr. Doherty 
 justly called the ' lower manifestations.' 
 
 In consequence of a meeting with Mrs. de Morgan, Alfred a. w. ho^ 
 Wm. Hobson writes : — * that probably you would be able of Hom 
 to inform me where I could get one of the " crystals " 
 for the purpose of " visions," such as she herself has. I 
 have for many years taken a deep interest in these subjects, 
 and more especially so since the recent era of "spirit 
 manifestations." I have, indeed, long contemplated a work 
 on this and other allied subjects, but am desirous of obtain- 
 ing perfectly satisfactory and accurate evidence to which 
 I can give my own personal testimony. T have already 
 received a considerable amount of such evidence.' 
 
 General interest was abroad on these subjects. A hundred 20th Mar. 
 years ago the magnetic telegraph might have been set down 
 as the 'work of the devil.' *Why not expect greater 
 wonders than have ever yet appeared, even to the per- 
 manent establishment of a spiritual telegraph,' writes one 
 Roger Casement. 
 
 ' As there is a backward current of electricity, why should 
 not there be a backward current of life 1 ' asked Dr. Joule, 
 the eminent physicist, in explanation of such a possibility 
 as ' ghosts.' 
 
 Mr. Hayden, the medium, writes from Boston that ' we 3rd July 
 have occasionally heard from you though the mediumship of 
 
 Mr. Howitt and the I^eto £ra We were very 
 
 sorry indeed to hear such unpleasant news of Mrs. Crow, and Nightside 
 
 ^ of Nature. 
 
 I must be allowed to say that I think there must be some 
 mistake in regard to the cause of her temporary insanity, as I 
 believe she is a woman possessed of too much sound sense to 
 
410 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 be easily unbalanced by so cheering a subject as spiritualism, 
 
 but I may have erred in my judgment There is 
 
 a great demand for good test mediums here, and were Mrs. 
 Hayden sitting at the present time, we could not receive 
 one half or one eighth of the company that would come to 
 her. There is but one public medium at present in Boston, 
 and she is engaged for three weeks ahead. We have had 
 a three days' convention of the spiritualists here in this city. 
 
 I have just finished writing my book, which I 
 
 intend to have published this fall, entitled — " Three Years 
 with the Spirits, in the Old and N'ew World." ' An Edinburgh 
 correspondent writes : — ' I am still of opinion that all the 
 phenomena therewith connected are the result of will, 
 sustained and invigorated by faith — the same power which 
 enabled Elijah to call fire from heaven, and Christ to still 
 the storm. By faith the finite lays hold on the infinite, and 
 the human is interpenetrated with the divine. I object to 
 the speciality of claim to the term " spiritual " for these mani- 
 festations, as I believe all life to be a spiritual manifestation, 
 and in so far am a Swedenborgian, considering this the sphere 
 of effects, of which the causes lie beyond.' 
 
 It is unnecessary to allude to the extraordinary character 
 of many of the communications sent him at this time, but 
 when hypnopathy is so fashionable, it may be interesting to 
 note what a lady says of her son, a remarkable medium : — 
 * He says that when in a trance his spirit leaves his body 
 and passes into the world of spirits, while an inhabitant of 
 that loorld takes possession of his bodi/.' When out receiving 
 visions, ' no rain would fall upon him,' although at other 
 Valentine, times it wet him like others ! E. Y. Rippingill, the artist I 
 E. V. Rippin- presume, treats the matter solidly. ' The very bias of the 
 ^ ■ day towards a philosophy of numbers, weights, and measures 
 
 is the very thing in favour of a work which does quite 
 violence enough to prejudices, all material, on taking a posi- 
 tion among speculative things, instead of jumping at once 
 into the seventh heaven of the visionary and the marvellous. 
 
THE ARTS OF DIVINATION. 411 
 
 What I have said is simply not to shut the door upon so 
 large a body, but cautiously to leave it ajar to all comers. 
 Occult philosophy excludes nobody and nothing, at the same 
 time that it does not pledge and commit itself to anything. 
 Now Spiritualism dashes at once into the ocean with a sink 
 or swim temerity, and fairly begs the question in an inquiry 
 which is just come into existence, and upon which, as you 
 
 say, it is yet too early to theorise^ I think, therefore, 
 
 such a source, such a means of information, is invaluable, 
 
 inestimable, and that no theory should be allowed 
 
 to interfere Avith it. I must observe that I don't think 
 Rogers has proved anything, the motive power being odylic 
 force, and the intelligence, the automatic action of brain, is 
 
 mere nonsense In one word, all should be left to 
 
 facts. Spiritualism is an assumption, and opposes this. I 
 know you are too liberal to see anything in these objections 
 but a love of truth and a desire for investigation.' 
 
 It was difficult to steer a medium course in his public 
 utterances, still more to keep his ' organ' clear of tender 
 places. In a paragraph in the Family Herald occurred : — 
 ' The gift of prophecy is not within the power of mortals. 
 No one can tell your destiny. To pretend to do so is im- 
 posture of the most barefaced kind, to believe it is credulity 
 of the grossest description.' This brought his friend Zadkiel 
 to the front. ' It is rare that we find such a specimen of zadkiei. 
 
 2Srd Feb 
 
 bigotry and illiberal feeling in the Family Herald issg. 
 
 It is very much opposed to what the Editor often writes on 
 the subject of condemning everything hard to understand as 
 imposture, a thing too often done by the 19th century men. 
 Of course the writer, before he condemned in such sweeping 
 terms all the occult arts, and all the systems of divination, 
 must have made some investigation into their character and 
 pretentions. And if so, it is not his fault if he is no conjuror. 
 Really to condemn all the great men who have practised, and 
 I may say all the clever persons who do practise, the various 
 arts of divination, as gross impostors, is disgraceful to a 
 
412 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 liberal periodical. For my part I have examined nearly 
 
 every system of foretelling the destiny of individuals, and 
 
 am prepared to prove, by indisputable facts, that they all 
 
 contain some germ of truth, many of them much truth.' 
 
 He recurs to the subject again in protest, and continues : 
 
 1st Mar. ' ]3ut I niust make known to you a new era in the art of 
 
 Crystal seeing. If you will read the pamphlets (sent), in 
 
 the order I have placed them, you will see that a great 
 
 improvement is made regarding Crystal science. This brings 
 
 us, for the first time for ages, acquainted with the higher 
 
 class of angelic beings, and shows whij the crystal has misled 
 
 so many persons hitherto. The revelation I have had from 
 
 my own guardian angel, named Hartliel, are very wonderful, 
 
 and very interesting and instructive. He will not appear in 
 
 Figures Lad]/ BlessiiujiorC s crystal, as "aerial" and evil spirits have 
 
 Bie'ssington'3 been and are in it. But he appears in Mr. Brown's crystal, 
 
 "^^ ^ ' and in a new one I have.' He wishes to see Smith and 
 
 introduce him to his wife, seemingly his third ! So that he 
 
 did not live entirely in the other world ! 
 
 During this period he became acquainted with an American 
 widow lady, one Mrs. Branch, who, even according to her own 
 account, has been greatly attracted by his personality as well 
 as by his works. She writes with great 'abandon' and 
 2nd April kindly feeling, but not with * gush.' ' Will you keep me 
 " posted up " ( Yankeeism), from time to time (not to encroach 
 upon your time), with the progression of Spiritualism in 
 England, just as you and I understand it, for I have some 
 articles to write for the C. Sjnritualist, and of course I 
 want to borrow pour hrain to help me along.' Julia, as she 
 signs herself, claims cousinskip, seeing her grandmother was 
 a Smith, and came from England ! Her letters show a 
 vivacious, high-spirited, eager-minded woman, full of mental 
 energy, a sister apparently of H. H. Day, New York, ' the 
 Great India-Rubber Man,' and whose ' Great India-Rubber 
 Litigation,' in every State in the Union, was a great cause 
 celebre. She acknowledges that her correspondent occupies a 
 
' AM I SAUCY ? ' 413 
 
 very large space amongst her pleasantest recollections, and she 
 wonders what her visit to London would have been without 
 him. 
 
 ' And — and — you say you have been looking for some of 29th June 
 my contributions, I almost tremble when I tell you that I Brooklyn, 
 am afraid you will not see many of mine, but I cut huge slices ^^'^ ^^^'='*- 
 from your letters and sent them to be published. I haven't 
 seen the paper to see how it looks in print, but it was such 
 a pity that I should keep hoarded up, for my especial benefit, 
 what would do the many good to read.' The climate of 
 England suited her better than America, but 'it is the 
 mental only that has thus reduced me physically, for I have 
 no disease, and I have done myself great injustice by taking 
 medicine to cure mental or heart sickness. I wish often 
 that you were on this side of the water, and many times 
 while I am walking with my sister I say '-Mr. Smith would 
 enjoy this, or how I would like him to see that." ' Her 
 sister thinks she is too enthusiastic, and jokes about her being 
 Smit(h)ten. 'She says she thinks she likes you already 
 by my description, and says — " What a pity such a nice 
 man shoiUd never get married : if he had been in America 
 
 the ladies would never have allowed it " If you 
 
 say truly " yours," then, as there is no time or distance to the 
 spirit, it will be always " yours." But I won't tease you ; 
 though, if you belong to me in spirit — spiritual brotherhood — 
 then I would have no limitation to spirit, and what is mine 
 is mine always by the existing laws of Deity. — P.S. 7th 
 
 July I have seen the Christian Spiritualist, and 
 
 ijour article looks beautifully in print ; I wish my remarks 
 had been more appropriate, and I had copied more from your 
 second letter. Am I saucy?' Her last letter dates from 
 Washington, and gives a long account of the capital and 5th Aug. 
 congress, especially the closing day of the session — some Washington 
 20 pp. of small writing. She delays sending it till she sees sothAug. 
 Mr. Doherty, who has gone to New York. ^^^^" 
 
 • Mr. Doherty I thought charming, very much like your- 
 
414 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 self, for he reminded me continually of you. I was glad to 
 see him, because in the first place he came from you, and 
 the second, because he came from Europe, where my heart 
 at times turns with many longings. He reminds me of you, 
 for he has the same pure heart ; and one feels refreshed to 
 come into the presence of men who have lived to his age in 
 the world, and yet have not partaken of its vices. I wish 
 sometimes I did not know men so thoroughly ; that my heart 
 had retained its childlike purity of trustful confidence. But 
 it is not so, and I am now too well initiated into the main- 
 springs that govern humanity to ever recall again that which 
 belongs to youth and its aspirations : perhaps I can more truly 
 appreciate those who have passed unscathed. Mr. Doherty 
 is to start a new paper. Mr. D. says he shall want you to 
 write in the paper. It will be devoted to scientific spirit- 
 ualism : we have heard the lower manifestations, and now 
 it must be elevated, and combined with everything in 
 science.' 
 
 Smith's meeting with his correspondent was probably at 
 Mrs. Kymer's, but ' I am sorry you did not invite me to 
 visit you ; I thought of it many times, and was in hopes you 
 would ask me. I have no false delicacy in regard to such 
 things, and I wonder at Miss Jane (medium) : still, her ideas 
 of propriety are different from mine. I like to see my 
 friends at home, and then I can steal in in spirit and sit 
 down — bother them, too — perhaps as much as if I was really 
 there physically. I believe we have the power of conversing 
 Avith friends in the body just as much as with those out. 
 Why not?' (She means at a distance.) There is a naivete 
 about the ending that is intensely human. * What a lot of 
 mischief women make in the world ! you are a fortunate man 
 to be a bachelor, and I think, with you, that some people 
 ought never to be married. I am of that class, and the idea 
 of the marriage relations as they exist now are growing every 
 year more intolerant (-able?) to me. I shall never marry 
 again ; at least I think so now. Tell me what are your ideas 
 
'GOD BLESS you! MY GOOD COUSIN.' 415 
 
 in relation to the spiritual union of man and woman. Is 
 there to be an indissoluble union of two throughout all time — 
 living, growing eternally together — or do we form our ideal, 
 and love affinities 1 Will our ideal ever be reached 1 When 
 you speak of woman in the Divine Drama, it is relatively. 
 Will you give me your opinion of her position as she should 
 exist to man spiritually, Avhether in or out of the body ? We 
 spoke of that subject once, but I am not sure that I got at 
 your true meaning of the " Universal man being married to 
 the Universal woman." I have gone over the whole subject, 
 and cannot bring it to mind as yet, even for a spiritual state ; 
 perhaps you may convince me. But I will finish now with 
 God bless you, my good cousin.' 
 
 That reservation, ' at least I think so now,' is delight- 
 ful ! Her ' cousin,' to whom she had taken so kindly, 
 probably never lived to answer this long and interesting letter. 
 
 His old friend Doherty wrote a kindly letter, too, from 12th Sepi^ 
 New York. He is charmed with the country and the 
 freedom of thought. ' The Professors of the " New York 
 Medical College " are very friendly, and offer me every 
 
 facility I want. I can do well here if I like to stay 
 
 I have not seen much of the spiritualists here yet, but I 
 went to hear Judge Edmunds preach last Sunday, and was 
 very much pleased. He had a congregation of some twelve 
 hundred people. There is life in this country for all new 
 ideas. If not so quiet and refined as Europe, it is not so 
 stifling and oppressive.' 
 
 We prefer, if possible, to let others speak as to James 
 Smith's position in regard to the then latest development 
 of Occultism. The S'piritual Magazine of May 1st, 1874, in 
 reprinting the Family Herald articles, gives a short sketch 
 of the author's life, and continues : — ' Mr. Smith was a 
 spiritualist and had experience of spirit-communion long before 
 the advent of modern Spiritualism. His Legends and ^Miracles, 
 published fifteen years before that date, was a penny weekly 
 journal, with quaint woodcuts, and contains many stock 
 
416 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNI VERBALIST. 
 
 stories of the supernatural, as the " Drummer of Tedworth," 
 
 &c. &c In short, it was the Spiritual Magazine 
 
 of its time, though only a dozen numbers of it were pub- 
 lished, making a thin volume, now very scarce. He was 
 one of the editors of the Spiritual Herald, published 
 monthly from February to July 1856, and to which Dr. J. 
 Garth Wilkinson, Eliliu Rich, John James Bird, and 
 Colonel Fawcet were contributors — a niagazine that was the 
 precursor of our own. In his Divine Drama, the author 
 discourses on Spiritualism as a " Gentile Dispensation," and 
 in the Coming Man he illustrates it by visions, revelations, 
 
 and other spiritual experiences When the mysterious 
 
 lappings began at Rochester, New York, in 1848, Mr. Smith 
 kept his readers of the Family Herald acquainted, from 
 
 week to week, with what was going on He 
 
 watched the development of the new manifestations with 
 interest, and in September 1854 and January 1855 there 
 appeared three leading articles on the subject by him in that 
 journal. There had been skirmishes on the question in 
 
 newspapers and secular journals, but these papers 
 
 in the Family Herald were, we believe, the first series of 
 leading articles in an English journal, giving to the British 
 public reliable information concerning the movement of 
 modern Spiritualism, which had already taken such deep 
 root on the American Continent. They excited considerable 
 interest, and some who have long been workers in our ranks 
 
 owe to them their first introduction to the subject 
 
 We reproduce the first series of articles in extenso as 
 
 a link connecting the movement in America and in England.' 
 The writer adds : — ' To some of the strictures in these 
 
 articles we think exception might be fairly taken 
 
 In conclusion we would say, all honour to this brave pioneer 
 of Spiritualism and kindred truths, for his manly, open 
 assertion and dissemination of facts, and conclusions con- 
 cerning them, then universally unpopular, and therefore the 
 more needed.' 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 SOME PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 A MIND SO ' liberally hospitable to all manner of ideas ' 
 must of necessity have had a varied correspondence, but he 
 tells us himself that he destroyed most of it. For this we 
 are personally thankful, as we have waded through amongst 
 what remains, a mass of unsteady, bewildered, groping, and 
 yet on the whole high-minded and honourable correspondence, 
 sufficient to shake any mental equilibrium. We hope some- 
 thing of the ' charity that belie veth all things,' to which 
 James Smith attributed his own sanity, has preserved us ; 
 and if any lack of it has been shown in our choice of 
 material, it has been through lack of judgment, not through 
 lack of desire to be charitable to all men. The very question- 
 able manner in which he was led into financial annoyance 
 through Godwin, Shelley's father-in-law, and the otherwise 
 absence of profusion of the needful throughout his life, were 
 subsidiary matters even in his own estimation, although 
 they undoubtedly caused him very great annoyance. Like his 
 brothers, and especially Dr. R. Angus Smith, his amiability 
 under any circumstances would have prevented him having 
 a surplus ; and the calls upon him from all sides, in conse- 
 quence, forced him still more to be 'dependent upon 
 Providence ' and indefatigable labour ! The most striking 
 effect of the mental conditions amidst which he always found 
 himself, or placed himself, is the evidence of intense intellect- 
 ual activity that could scarcely otherwise have been evoked. 
 The desire for knowledge, and the straining after a higher 
 intellectual and moral standard, was stimidating the minds 
 
 2 E 
 
418 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 of classes that could never have been reached by the 
 ' mechanism ' of the schools. A great spiritual awakening, 
 kept up by mutual communion of cognate minds, had spread 
 over the land ; and whatever one may think of the special or 
 individual manifestations, one cannot doubt that a work 
 was being done that could not otherwise have been produced. 
 The immense power of such a moral and spiritual awakening 
 as he had passed through, upon all classes of the community, 
 no doubt influenced James Smith in his views of the inadequacy 
 of all material progress, and its trifling character compared 
 with the power and vitality of an idea. The power of the 
 ' Spirit ' and the ' wisdom ' it produced, compared with mere 
 ' knowledge,' whether of the schools or of life, appealed more 
 especially to men and women who were somewhat devoid of 
 education, but not wanting in that culture of heart and 
 mind that no school can give, and no knowledge per se 
 satisfy. We consequently find much of his correspondence 
 with refined women, and untrained but spiritually-minded 
 men. This, no doubt, helped to prove to Smith the truth of 
 his 'mission,' the stereotyped intellects of the schools not 
 being liberal to any class of ideas but their own, at any 
 period of the world's history. ' . . . I am no producer of 
 knowledge, but, though the means of a journeyman baker 
 are small, it gives me great pleasure at times to turn 
 diffusionist. It is my desire to disseminate truth among our 
 "IS'orland chiels" that causes this intrusion on your useful- 
 ness, and bids me ask if you will be so kind as send a 
 brother " Maniac " one copy of your " Antichrist " (in boards), 
 one of the " Kefutation of Owenism," and " Reply," and one of 
 " New Christianity." Also, if the money goes the length, any 
 of your other lectures published,' — this is a type of his 
 followers. His lifelong friends were the Garlands, whom 
 he first lived in great intimacy with in Ashton-under-Lyne, 
 when they were of the same way of thinking as himself. 
 Afterwards he lived with them in London, until, by the 
 death of a relative, they came into a. small freehold property 
 
HIS FRIENDS THE GARLANDS. 419 
 
 at Southfleet. His regard for the whole family was very 
 marked. His lady correspondents in Scotland allude to it 
 
 early. ' According to you, Mr. must be a singular 
 
 jDersonage, and Mrs. Garland surely a very attractive one ; sra Jiav. 
 she has the art of winning people's hearts. What does her Edinburgh, 
 
 husband say to all this ? is he a friend to liberty? By 
 
 the by, have you any more balls after your lectures ? I think 
 I was once told something of your leading oflf at a ball, 
 previous to which you had been preaching.' Another lady, 
 in good position, who writes a cultured and elegant hand, 
 refers delicately to the friendship between him and Miss 
 Forster, adding — ' I begin to think you a very quarrelsome ctii May 
 person, for you are always misunderstanding me, and you Etiinburgh. 
 
 and Miss Forster are ever at drawn daggers I have 
 
 not formed any illiberal ideas with respect to Mrs. Garland 
 from all you have said of her, though you certainly do say a 
 good deal ; and if I am to be guided by the admiration she 
 seems to draw from you and Dr. Tytler, I must suppose 
 that she is a very superior person.' Of all the Edinburgh 
 ladies who believed in and corresponded with him, this Miss 
 Forster was no doubt the most favoured, addressing him as 
 * Dear James,' and signing herself 'Yours ever, Elizabeth.' 
 
 On the completion of the Shepherd, a correspondent 
 thanks him heartily for it in a long, well-written letter. Its 
 originality, apart from its truth, attracted him, ' in this age 22nd Aug. 
 of little great men, who make extracts, effusions, decoctions 
 of others' books, and call themselves authors, who read works 
 of science, and call themselves philosophers, who fiddle 
 another's notes, and call themselves musicians, and when, in 
 fact, every day brings forth nothing but introductions, 
 elements, abridgments.' He makes one shrewd criticism : — 
 ' In your consideration of the twofold character of all nature, 
 I do not remember to have met with any mention of the 
 two kinds of action, voluntary and involuntary, e.g., eating 
 and breathing. It is possible that, following up your personi- 
 fication of the Universe, your opponents may contend that 
 
420 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 sucli tilings as the IMaliomedan religion may be one of the 
 involuntary actions, and therefore not to be traced to a 
 divine original.' 
 
 His Edinburgh friends were always constant, although the 
 failure of their hopes that John Wroe's millennium was to 
 be a icorldly and early one was very grievous to them all. 
 15th Nov. They send their copies of the Sliepherd to be bound each 
 ^^^^' in a different shop, so as to spread a knowledge of it. One 
 
 has two copies (Robert Hunter). ' I will keep the one, and 
 send the other to travel ' among his acquaintances. 
 
 Amongst his old Ashton-under-Lyne comrades w^ere many 
 
 who continued to look up to him, while others called him a 
 
 renegade, who had broken up their church. Some of these 
 
 communications are very curious. From !N'ew York a well 
 
 written but questionably spelled letter is from ' a lady past 
 
 8th Mar. sixty.' Of curious interest it is in the light of history. She 
 
 Mary 0. wislics to kuow from one, her knowledge of whom dates from 
 
 Ncw^YoTk'. the London Phalanx, what his opinion is on a question 
 
 that is agitating both her country and this : — ' What is 
 
 woman's mission in this age, and more especially has Joanna 
 
 Southcott and Jane Lead . . . given a key to, in the purity 
 
 of the woman crushing the head of the serpent, by living up 
 
 to the Levitical law, or to the transcendental idea ? At 
 
 this present time we have in New York, as well as other 
 parts of America, the visitation of spirits, so as to stagger the 
 most rational minds, and among men and "women of all 
 classes We have in this Western world an ingather- 
 ing of many States and minds respecting the second coming 
 of Christ ; and among those with whom I have had some 
 degree of intercourse, I find none so interesting as a body 
 scattered through our Eastern and Western States (they are 
 styled by the world Shakers), but they wish to be acknow- 
 ledged under the title of United Brethren. They are not 
 understood by the world, and sadly and falsely represented : 
 they should be a study for those who profess themselves 
 seekers after God's highest truth-; but time will do them 
 
HOPELESS ASPIRATIOXS. 421 
 
 justice I tcake the liberty of sending you a volume 
 
 of their faith and acts, as the}'- fully accept the woman as an 
 equal, and treat her as such, both in Church and State. They 
 have expanded much since the book was published, and, like 
 all imperfect organisations, there are a people coming among 
 them now that will sow seeds of discord, to their final separa- 
 tion.' She adds that she 'should delight to visit England, 
 even in my old age ; though I feel America very dear, yet in 
 point of spiritual sympathy I should prefer Europe.' 
 
 As one of the most amusing of the opposing letters, the 
 following extracts may serve : — ' You are incorrigible ! 'No eth May 
 criticism has the least effect upon you, invulnerable or lo'^Editoi- 
 insensible, alike to the shafts of ridicule or scorn ! You ^'^' 
 pursue the uneven tenour of your way, utterly regardless of 
 
 friends or foes It is the vain wish to be thought a 
 
 ''teacher of the people" which blinds your eyes to the 
 glaring absurdities contained in your " leading articles " ! 
 Leaders indeed to poor fools, who take sound for sense, and 
 because they cannot understand the meaning, think sub- 
 limity lurks behind. I have hitherto in vain endeavoured 
 to find a match to your " Curiosities of Literature " out of 
 
 Bedlam If you ever read other writings than your 
 
 own, you must perceive that there is so7ne connection, one 
 part with another Your correspondent Beppo in- 
 quires (I am afraid satirically) if you proposed publishing 
 your leaders in a separate volume ; if you do, I shall be glad 
 of a copy. I will preserve it literally as a Curiosity ' 
 
 William Neal, one of the socialist leaders in London, 
 writes refuting Smith's views of his opinions and objects, 
 asserting that he desires no violent revolution, but gets 
 nothing but misconceptions even from his correspondents. 
 'The state of mind in which I write this is perfectly leth Aug. 
 horrible. May no one else ever feel it ! It seems to me wntiam 
 that I am mocked in having aspirations for social love and ^'^^'• 
 harmony, and a condition of life in which a deference 
 to truth and uiiiversal justice shall not be a fatal delu- 
 
422 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 sion ! ' He signs himself — ' Yours in sadness, but very 
 sincerely.' 
 
 His particular friend H. Smith Evans, the artist, writes : 
 
 25tijAug _'i fiiiel that the late Mr. Holmes of the Brit. Miis. was 
 the author of the article in the EdinhurgU Quarterly Review^ 
 vol. 88, p. 137— December 1850 to March 1851. Wherein, 
 speaking of you, he says — " The reverend editor or ex-editor 
 of The Shejjherd, a weekly journal, price one penny, in 
 which (1835) he advertised Sunday Evening Lectures — 
 pretty pastorals in Castle Street, Oxford Market. Admit- 
 tance 3d. Ladies Free//" Do justice and fear not — poor 
 Holmes is gone to be grizzled! The field is open for one 
 
 article on this vile educative thieving Do come down 
 
 from the clouds, and condescend to whack these carnal 
 rascals. It is an awful crime to rob a workhouse, but sins 
 of omission are almost as bad.' His friend did not seem to 
 have properly imbibed James Smith's views of Tartarus ! 
 
 Xeal, while claiming to be a ' pupil ' of Smith, protests 
 again and again against his 'lapse' from his former opinions : 
 
 1854^*^^*" ' Singularly enough, too, we teach nothing but what your 
 own published writings give us ample texts for ! ! ! ' Again : 
 
 19th Aug. ' I believe that the property relations of man are of infinitely 
 more importance than their speculative religious creeds. 
 How men get tlitir living is of far more consequence than — 
 What doctrinal opinions do they hold 1 Let the institutions 
 of society compel men to give something for something, and 
 you will soon have the millennium ; but keep up a state of 
 society like the present, where vast hordes of the people get 
 their daily wants supplied by the forced labour of others, 
 for which they give nothing useful or ornamental in return, 
 and you must ever have what you now have — Pande- 
 monium ! ' 
 
 His artist friend, W. Salter Herrick, has gone to Scot- 
 land, and writes a chatty letter from St. Andrews, where he 
 is the guest of Sir David Brewster. It is interesting as an 
 artist's reference to Smith's artistic works : ' We were 
 
 1854. 
 
HIS EARLY LANDSCAPES. 423 
 
 delighted with Edinbro', its old castle and fairy heights ; and 7th Oct. 
 at this moment of writing, as I try to realise it, it seems to Herrkk. 
 me more like a town built in the air, and seen in a dream. 
 As fine weather is essential to one's enjoyment of the country, 
 
 we thought it better to start onward, up Loch 
 
 Lomond, and at night slept at a little hotel at the head of 
 the loch, but not before we had seen a full moon, that would 
 almost have dazzled the tropics, rise over Ben Lomond in 
 such still majesty, I almost forgot I -was smoking a first-rate 
 cigar. Early next morning we were out beside a mountain 
 stream, hemmed in with mountains, reading Burns together, 
 and thoroughly enjoying it too. We then went on to Loch 
 Katrine — with such weather ! and what scenery ! — well 
 
 might Scott have been inspired with it On Loch 
 
 Katrine we met a fine intellectual man and his wife ; they 
 had evidently travelled a great deal, and at the Trossachs 
 we passed some time together, — curious enough we have 
 just received a letter from him (although it is now some 
 weeks since we met, and never expected to meet again), in 
 which they both join in begging us to visit them at a place 
 called The Burns, Brechin ; he is a Major M'Inroy, and Sir 
 David tells us he has known them both intimately for years, 
 and they are also intimate with Lord and Lady Kintore — is 
 it not strange 1 Well, we went on to Stirling and Perth, 
 where we called on your kind brother. He and his excellent 
 family gave us a thorough Scotch welcome, and we passed the 
 evening with him and the next day, and parted with regret. 
 Mr. Brown had not returned, but instead of his pictures we 
 saw some that gave us far more i)leasure than his could, 
 however good — they were some of your own early land- 
 scapes Crossed the mountains to Loch Tumniel, and 
 
 how do you think we did it 1 — sent our baggage on and walked 
 
 (from Killicrankie !) over mountain and moors Our 
 
 friend Sir David received us most kindly — his beautiful old 
 Abbotsford-looking house is just as hospitable inside as it is 
 picturesque outside ; it was the residence of George 
 
424 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 Buchanan ; and, surrounded as it is Avith the old grey ruins 
 of the church and cathedral, to us it is every way full of 
 
 interest We have thought of you all very much in 
 
 the dreadful scourge you have had to encounter in London, 
 and I am looking forward with pleasure to the time when 
 we may smoke our cigars again together over a steaming glass 
 of toddy, by our winter fireside.' 
 
 There is a peculiar direct frankness in the English letters 
 compared with those from his Scotch friends. A friend of 
 old standing, from the days of Ashton-under-Lyne, writes him 
 from Ipswich, where he has been left a widower : — ' My dear 
 departed — she had much faith, hope, and trust in the Lord 
 — have often spoken of your sayings when with us. She 
 judged you a good living and good meaning, although a 
 singular man, and hoped you would be led to see the errors 
 by which you were misled, and that you would at last be 
 admitted into glory with all the redeemed ones.' He invites 
 his friend to go to Ipswich at any time for a change, to stay 
 with him. 
 
 Miss Catherine "Walker, one of his staunch lady friends 
 in Edinburgh, along with Miss Forster, Miss Hagart, and 
 Miss Dunlop, in inviting him to Edinburgh, w^here he will 
 be sure of a welcome from his old friends, writes: — 'My 
 mind is more occupied now in the prospect of a future state 
 than with the different events in this world's progress 
 towards regeneration — however sure, they are slow, and 
 must long outlive my advanced years.' ' You must have 
 been greatly refreshed and cheered by seeing Miss Forster,' 
 she adds. They had all wasted their youth over the hope 
 of a worldly Shiloh ! and they now found themselves passing 
 with the passing show. 
 
 Another example of his correspondence comes along with 
 
 a request to notice the ' Kightingale Cradle ' among the 
 
 17th May ' uscful inventions ' : — ' The Society we were speaking of 
 
 Jacob Dixon, is still Only a paper. Mr. Bielfield (artist !) seems indifferent 
 
 about it. Captain Casement is in Ireland, and the gentleman 
 
' FAMILY HERALD ' PROPRIETOR. 425 
 
 ■svlio would have been secretary has discovered mediums in 
 his own family, and is organising two circles at remote points. 
 All / ever professed to contribute was the room and the 
 facility of meeting ; these remain the same.' 
 
 The few letters preserved from Mr. Biggs, the original 
 proprietor of the Family Herald, show a careful, exact man 
 of business : — ' I regret exceedingly to hear of your extreme loth Jan. 
 weakness, a convincing proof that you have been reduced 
 too low. I continue to send, because I consider that, for 
 your brilliant imagination and strong judgment, moderate 
 intellectual occupation is a relaxation and a pastime, rather 
 than a mental labour. I trust that skilful and judicious 
 management will speedily restore you to the bodily ease and 
 mental serenity which you have hitherto enjoyed for so 
 many years.' And yet neither of which, in reality, to judge 
 from his correspondence, had been his for a generation ! 
 
 1S5 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 SCIENCE AND FANCY. — THE LETTERS OF 'MERCURY,' 
 AND 'the COMING MAN.' 
 
 "We are disposed to look upon those Essays of James Smith 
 that were published weekly in the current press with more 
 favour than upon his works in volume form. He wrote in 
 the one case with that wholesome self-control imposed by 
 the necessities of his position ; in the other he gave play to 
 his analogies, with a freedom that was often more approach- 
 ing recklessness and extravagance. At the same time, his 
 mind, as it ivas, is best seen in those works by which he 
 hoped to live in the estimation of posterity — The Shepherd, 
 and The Divine Drama of History and CivUisation. To 
 these may be added that posthumous publication issued in 
 1873 — The Coming Man, a novel that is, and must always 
 remain, sui generis. 
 
 Before proceeding to give some insight into this last work, 
 it may be well to note that a brain of such volume and 
 activity as his could not fail to produce, and to produce in 
 quantity. But much of his work was necessarily given to 
 what are vulgarly called ' pot-boilers,' and of these he took 
 no note, and frequently no trace is left of them. There is, 
 however, one work that gives an idea of his power and reach 
 of intellect, and the possibilities within its reach, in a way 
 that none of his other single productions do. This is the small 
 volume of sixty letters, reprinted from a weekly periodical, 
 and called Mercury's Letters in Science. It is designed to 
 point out the use of Science as a basis of moral and analo- 
 gical instruction, and to suggest correct modes of thinking 
 
ALL DONE 'SCIENTIFICALLY.' 427 
 
 and reasoning on ' Scientific Subjects.' We have evidence 
 in this work, as elsewhere, of a remarkable grasp of the 
 whole field of Science ; but we have, as well, a freedom, a 
 novelty, and a humour in handling it, that was specially 
 characteristic of his mind, whenever the incubus of his 
 Mission of Universal Charity was for the moment forgotten. 
 In replying to a critic in Franklin's Miscellany^ who com- 
 plains of the want of solidity of the letters, he writes : — 'This 
 
 want of solidity is intentional on my part Solidity 
 
 is not the only valuable principle in nature. Fluidity is 
 quite as good. How would my critical and scientific friend 
 like a solid wife as hard as a rock, or a solid glass of water 
 or wine, or a solid atmosphere. A letter may be too solid 
 for popular instruction, just as the sea in frosty weather may 
 be too solid for the comfort and convenience of its inhabi- 
 tants. 
 
 * Once on a time the fishes complained 
 
 That the sea was not solid and stable ; 
 Jove converted the sea into ice, and exclaimed, 
 "Now get swimmingly on, if you're able." ' 
 
 He was not an experimenter, and the only originality he 
 claims is of a logical and imaginative nature. He disclaims 
 the title of a man of science, and desires that his readers be 
 not misled by the title-page into believing him one. Indeed 
 he is careful at all times to keep himself free from the 
 suspicion of being ' Sectarian,' a term he applied as much to 
 science as to religion, and with at least as much justice. 
 With the exception of a few rectifications required in his 
 facts, * Mercury's Letters ' would suit to-day. ' Without 
 preamble, I shall come to the point at once, by commencing 
 scientifically. Nothing will go down with the present 
 generation so well as something that is done scientifically. 
 Tailors write books on the science of tailoring, and the shoe- 
 makers are just beginning to follow their example The 
 
 public will have the satisfaction of knowing, if it should be 
 deceived in these days of science, that it is deceived scienti- 
 
428 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 fically.' Speaking one day of a public character to a friend, 
 that friend remarked that he thouglit he was a quack. ' Oh, 
 no ! ' I replied ; ' I assure you he does it all scientifically.'' 
 'Indeed!' replied my friend; 'that alters the case. I 
 thought he was a mere quack ; but if he does it scientifically^ 
 
 that alters the case.' ' Gin is now almost universally 
 
 distilled from oil of turpentine, but quite scientifically.' 
 The quaint humour of his illustrations bring home to the 
 mind the facts and princij^les of science in a most effective 
 manner. ' There is attraction and repulsion, and the one is 
 as useful as the other. Without attraction, a lady would 
 have no lover ; and without rejxilsion, the lover could never 
 walk a step to meet her, inasmuch as he repels the earth 
 every step that he takes, and the greater the repulsion the 
 faster he goes.' 'There is a universal harmony, but a 
 
 particular discord, observable throughout all nature 
 
 Although there is no individual animal, probably, which 
 combines in itself all the perfections of its species, every 
 genus or species of animal may be said to be perfect.' 
 After giving examples of the display of mind following the 
 destruction of the ' intellectual organs ' of the brain, and other 
 instances, he proceeds — ' This shows, at least, that although 
 these organs are indications of the power of the mind, they 
 are not the mind itself. The mind is a unity, which ra- 
 diates through the body and governs it ; but it is not the 
 body.' The further we advance, the less satisfactory do 
 ordinary exj^lanations appear, — the double brain, the action 
 of only one side, &c., all being attempts to beg the question. 
 Scientific men, to him, are generally in arrear of discovery. 
 Simple, practical men 'discover the facts from which 
 scientific theorists deduce the mathematical and arithmetical 
 formulas which generally go by the name of science.' 
 As for the chemical tables of digestibility of foods, &c., they 
 are wholly unreliable : ' l^utrition depends upon some things 
 besides matter : the assimilating power in different individuals 
 is infinitely various : one man will fatten on bread and water ; 
 
A MORE REFINED SEXSE WANTED. 429 
 
 another cannot be fattened by any species of feeding, how- 
 ever plentiful and luxuriant. Individual experiments are 
 therefore inconclusive.' 
 
 ' What is natural and wliat is not ? Everything is natural 
 that is, and that ^vhich is not is not natural. There are 
 two kinds of jN'ature — a kind and a cruel — but they are 
 both quite natural. It is quite natural for a female spider 
 to eat her husband, for it is done so very frequently 
 that it is supposed there are one hundred females to one 
 male.' He objects to the moral argument in regard to 
 an animal diet. ' A cockroach is still a cockroach, eat what 
 it may; and animals are not tamed by food, but by moral 
 treatment, by kind usage, by the exercise of authority, 
 and other means of familiarising them with peaceful and 
 domestic life. Hunger, it is said, will tame a lion, but I 
 would rather meet a lion that had just dined than one 
 that was looking for a dinner.' One thing Smith will not 
 glide over, and that is the moral delinquencies of gifted men. 
 ' We ought rather to judge them with greater severity than 
 others : their keenness of apprehension should more readily 
 perceive the evil and the impolicy of immoral conduct. If 
 intellect do not prove beneficial as a moral instructor, of 
 what use is intellect at all?' There is always something 
 beyond the 'facts' and 'effects' with which alone the 
 ordinary senses can deal. * There is some other secret un- 
 discovered, more spiritual than either, which requires some 
 other sense to perceive it than those five with which we are 
 endowed. Beyond the five senses we cannot go in science ; 
 the sphere beyond is a mystic sphere of verbiage and 
 sophism, in which anything may be said, affirmed, or con- 
 jectured, according as the caprice of the individual inclines 
 or his genius inspires, but demonstration is the sphere of 
 sense.' A recent case before the law courts is here forestalled ! 
 * If you put a piece of copper into a solution of gold, it will 
 apparently be converted into gold, for the copper will dis- 
 solve and the gold will consolidate in the same form as the 
 
430 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 piece of copper. This experiment would deceive a simpleton, 
 and might be profitably employed to persuade him to em- 
 ploy his capital to supply the requisite material. Many a 
 rich fool has been fleeced in this manner, without doubt.' 
 Magnetism, electricity, and galvanism are popularly ex- 
 plained, and the then new discoveries of Daguerre and 
 Talbot wondered over. 'It has been anxiously inquired 
 whether it may not be possible to take likenesses by means 
 of it. M. Arago has given his opinion in favour of the 
 possibility, but the operation must be much accelerated 
 before the delicate expression of a living and breathing 
 countenance can be caught.' Daguerre's shortest period was 
 then seven minutes ! The development of photography — ■ 
 or heliography, as it was then called — has been as remark- 
 able as that of any modern art. But — but — to Smith, science 
 is for the rich, and has done nothing for the poor. ' Can 
 we not, with all our inventions and discoveries, discover the 
 
 art of cultivating the human being 1 Science must 
 
 prove a universal blessing before it be entitled to the re- 
 spect which it too often claims There is no seat 
 
 for the poor man, says Malthus, at Nature's board 
 
 At present it is a fact Were we to judge by the 
 
 condition of the poor alone, we should find no proof of the 
 superiority of a civilised and scientific country like ours over 
 that of an uncivilised and unscientific island like Xew 
 Zealand. Science has, therefore, much to do ; it has to 
 justify itself, it has to extend its benefits to the many as 
 w^ell as to the few ; at present it astonishes more by its 
 power than by its clemency and generosity.' Social science 
 is only in preparation. 
 
 In this little volume we find one of the few reminiscences 
 of his youth. *I often wondered, when a boy, how un- 
 equally Nature had provided for the inferior animals, but I 
 
 have learned to correct my mistake I remember 
 
 once being moved by compassion, on a stormy evening, to 
 visit the nest of a poor lark, to see how it fared in the midst 
 
NO PAN TO A dog's TAIL! 431 
 
 of the torrent of rain that the windows of heaven poured 
 down on the earth. I myself was thoroughly drenched, but 
 I cared not for that in those buoyant days of superfluous 
 health. It was a dark autumnal night ; neither moonlight 
 nor starlight enlivened the gloom. The sons and daughters 
 of men had taken shelter in their habitations of clay, and 
 animals of inferior nature were cowering in their holes. 
 What a fool I was ! How very cruel to disturb the little 
 bird in the performance of its maternal duties ! It had only 
 one young one. I stepped softly and cautiously to the nest. 
 I laid my hand upon the mother, but in the flurry of the 
 moment I suffered her to escape. I meant to have taken 
 both mother and child away with me till the storm was 
 over. I then took out the young one, but it was cold and 
 lifeless. The nest was filled with water. The protection of 
 
 the mother's wings was useless I returned the 
 
 little one to her watery bed, and went home in a melancholy 
 mood.' He questions if the young of other birds are better 
 nursed than those of the lark ; but he misses the best point 
 of the story — the dead youngster in all probability having 
 been a young cuckoo, or there would have been more in the 
 nest and each better protected ! 
 
 Many, no doubt, missed the object of his Essays, it being 
 too dexterously concealed. He writes to Dr. R. Angus 
 Smith : — ' As for the House that Jack Built, I wrote it to 
 show what could be made of the popular rhyme, thus giving 
 a mystic or poetical reason for the great popularity of it. 
 You ask if poetry should always have a moral 1 Of course 
 it should, but not appended to it like a pan at a dog's tail. 
 Even fables ought to be devoid of the appendage. It is a 
 modern excrescence.' 
 
 We confess to a great difficulty in analysing The Coming Published 
 Man to meet the ordinary reader. Only a very sympathetic a- Co., isis. 
 mind can appreciate it. It is somewhat like the Divine 
 Drama — * only more so.' The author feels bound by no tram- 
 mels, and revels in his analogical arcana. We prefer to give 
 
The In 
 tjuirer. 
 
 432 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UNIVERSALIST. 
 
 the views expressed at the time of its appearance, when 
 these are stated fairly. 
 
 ' This strange book contains many passages of profound, 
 subtle, and beautiful thought, and many practical hints and 
 suggestions of great moral usefulness, and is tempered 
 throughout with a spirit of gentleness and charity. It has, 
 on the other hand, certain chapters within it which seem to 
 us more akin to the ravings of Canidia than to the sensible 
 
 utterances of a sober mind Some readers, we 
 
 fear, when they come to certain parts of these volumes, will 
 feel a momentary impulse to throw them away in utter im- 
 patience at their wildness and absurdity ; but if they will read 
 on to the end they will, we think, put down the book in a 
 calmer mood, with a feeling of deep respect and some sym- 
 pathy for an author who, though he must have possessed an 
 erratic mind, prone to overstrain the phenomena of history 
 and of life into shapes that suited his preconceptions and 
 fancies, was, nevertheless, an earnest, devout, and holy 
 thinker — a man of culture and capacity, and of broad and 
 generous affections. We have a string of curious fancies and 
 speculations, the main purport of which is to show that in 
 the divine government of the world all ages, all nations, all 
 mythologies, all religions, all fanaticisms, all social pheno- 
 mena, normal or abnormal, have had an appointed place and 
 function, a brief or abiding purpose to fulfil, and a spiritual 
 
 meaning symbolically to convey He is fond of 
 
 prophetical numbers, and in his attempts to illustrate and 
 apply them makes even sober arithmetic run wild into the 
 
 excesses of fancy There breathes through these 
 
 volumes a spirit of fairness and of charity We 
 
 should think Dr. Gumming would be the best appreciator of 
 this work, except that the Doctor's mind is not by a great 
 deal so large and liberal as was that of the author.' 
 The New There is no doubt that The Coming Man is a provoking 
 
 Evangelist, ^ook : — ' Much that is said is well said. Much that is ex- 
 posed is deservedly exposed. We enjoy each turn of the 
 
 1874. 
 
FIXAL VISIT TO PERTH. 433 
 
 kaleidoscope that reveals to us new characters or phases of 
 character. We begin to feel the vastness of the problem — 
 how to harmonise the discords of human opinion and belief. 
 
 He reminds us at times of Carlyle (not in his style, 
 
 indeed, which is usually perspicuous and elegant), for he 
 shows more art in exposing or tearing down than in com- 
 bining or building up. His exposure of Materialism in its 
 gi'ossness is telling. He unveils the interior of sects and 
 schemes of reform so as to repel any disposition to further 
 acquaintance, but we only feel the more deeply the need of 
 what we miss — the exhibition of the real power of Chris- 
 tianity to regenerate and reconstruct society.' 
 
 * A very extraordinary, and in many respects an interest- illustrated 
 
 ing and a thought-compelling book The two News!^^ 
 
 volumes contain a curious intermixture of the wild and 
 
 the visionary with the sober and practical His 
 
 style is very original, and humour is conspicuous in page 
 after page.' The reviewer alludes pleasantly to some of the 
 wilder extravagances of the author, and adds : — ' However, 
 with all this, there is in the two volumes a great deal that 
 is we'll worth reading.' And yet the book is such that few 
 but ' Spiritualists ' could frankly say they appreciated it. 
 The Spiritual Magazine specially notices it. 
 
 Still Tlie Coming Man was inferior as a novel, with many 
 of the special defects that had grown with his growth, liis 
 ill-health, his abnormal imagination, and his failure to mix 
 sufficiently in the throng of men. 
 
 He was 'our earliest and most accomplished champion,' 
 says the SpiritiLalid. But his Spiritualism was not theirs. 
 In some respects it was more that of an Eastern devotee, who 
 despised his body as an incubus that prevented the free play 
 of the Divine within him ; while paradoxically acknowledging 
 that it demanded gracious treatment as the ' female ' side of 
 his nature. 
 
 He had just paid a particularly happy visit to his elder 
 brother in Perth, marvelling much in his simple way at the 
 
 2 F 
 
434 SHEPHERD SMITH THE UXIVERSALTST. 
 
 progress evident in provincial Scotland, where he found the 
 middle class homes better fitted and more comfortable than 
 the same houses in the south. He enjoyed keenly the in- 
 tellectual contests with the members of his brother's family, 
 all imbued with the 'spirit of the age,' and declining to 
 accept any authority that did not satisfy acute and well- 
 furnished minds. Promising himself to return more fre- 
 quently to society he found so congenial, and which he had 
 only too ]ong neglected, he went on to Glasgow, and within 
 a few days expired quietly in the house of Dr. Harle, whose 
 wife Avas a daughter of the family into which he had been 
 almost adopted as a son — since the days of his mental torture 
 and exaltation at Ashton-under-Lyne — the Garlands. 
 
 He thus lived and died ' with hope and without fear,' as 
 he says himself, labouring strenuously to the last to imbue 
 the popular mind with that Charity to which he looked for 
 the redemption of the world. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Actors, 20, 238. 
 Addison, Laura, 261. 
 Admirers, 202, 208 
 
 Agitation useful, but , 162, 
 
 Aiton, Jock, 29, 323, 
 
 Algebraic questions, 302. 
 
 Allotments of land, 183, 230. 
 
 Althorpe, Lord, 99, 
 
 American climate exhaustive, 317. 
 
 American edition, 299. 
 
 America and its 'almighty dollar,' 
 
 276, 
 Analogy the L^uiversal Science, 
 
 260. 
 Analogy, wealth of, 227. 
 Anarchy not useless, 238. 
 Ancesthetics ancient, 237. 
 Antichrist, 100, 127. 
 Apocrypha, 46. 
 Armitage, George, 68. 
 Army Reform, 273. 
 Art for a livelihood, 77. 
 Artistic criticism, 272, 274. 
 Ashton-under-Lyne, 56, 153, 313, 
 
 418, 434. 
 Astrology, principles of, 403. 
 Athletics, Smith deficient in, 31. 
 Atheism, 81, 117, 138. 
 Attwood, Allan Thomas, 318. 
 Audience, his, 148, 
 Aunt Lizzy's death, 118, 
 Authority and pedigree, 131, 174, 
 Authority unsettled, 217. 
 Automaton vessel, 215. 
 
 Babel, 147. 
 
 Babylon, the mystical, 36, 
 
 Bacon's Essays, in France, 322, 
 
 Bailliere, publisher, 282. 
 
 Baines, IVlr,, editor, 148. 
 
 Bailey, Sir I,, 387. 
 
 Ballet, likes to see a, 369. 
 
 Barbarous theology, 162. 
 
 Baynes, artist, 88. 
 
 Bear, and avenge not yourself, 366. 
 
 Beard, wearing the, 53, 60, 199. 
 
 Bed, ladies' resource, 385, 
 
 Beershops, first opening, 191. 
 
 ' Bell's Weekly Messenger,' 333, 338. 
 
 Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, 
 
 161. 
 Bulccesar's Feast, 343, 347, 352. 
 Bulwer, 148. 
 Bible inspired, 122. 
 Bielfield, artist, 424. 
 Bigoted ignorance of clergy, 191. 
 Biggs, 'Family Herald,' 303, 305, 
 
 308, 311, 323, 333, 425. 
 Bipolarity of truth, 189. 
 Birard, M. de, 353. 
 Blair's ' Grave,' 28. 
 Blackwell, Robert, 69. 
 Black, Mr., editor, 148, 
 Black Bull Inn, 21. 
 ' Blackwood,' and ' Family Herald,' 
 
 232. 
 'Blackwood's] Lady's Magazine,' 310. 
 Blanc, Louis,' a Fourierite, 312, 
 Blasphemy necessary, 93, 
 Blessington, Lady, her 'crystal,' 
 
 412, 
 Blessington, Lord, 364. 
 Bloomer costume, 266. 
 Books in France, 145. 
 Borthwick, Sir Algernon, 4, 
 Borthwick, Peter, 84, 87, 89, 91, 118, 
 
 177, 322, 353, 365, 367, 370, 
 Bosworth, publisher, 393, 397, 399. 
 Bowie, Mr., on Smith, 40. 
 Borrowing Ids brain, 412. 
 Brain turned, his, 54, 
 Branch, Mrs,, 412, 
 Brewster, Sir David, 422, 
 Brighton, to, for advice, 313. 
 
436 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Britain and commercial freedom, 
 
 293. 
 Brothers, his, 146, 202. 
 Brown, Wm., author and artist, 
 
 423. 
 Bruce, James, 70, 7o. 
 Bruno, Giordano, 160, 
 
 Cabs and omnibuses, 90. 
 
 Cafes, 194. 
 
 Calvanistic training, 146. 
 
 Calvin's intolerance, 335. 
 
 Campbellites, 63. 
 
 Carlile, Richard, 117, 141. 142. 
 
 Carfin, 24, 25. 
 
 Cave of Adullam, a, 402. 
 
 Cant of Sectarianism, 187. 
 
 * Capitals of the World ' extolled, 
 
 232. 
 Casement, Captain Eoger, 409, 424. 
 Castle Street Hall, 117. 
 Catholic punishment, 319. 
 ' Catholic,' the only system, 172. 
 Celibacy of the clergy, 128. 
 Chambers', Robert, daughters, 409. 
 " Chambers' " declining ! 310. 
 Charity, the redeemer, 434. 
 
 „ the East the land of, 240. 
 ,, private, necessary, 277. 
 Chartists not formidable, 312. 
 Chichester, Mrs., 205. 
 Chivalry a g6rm, 289. 
 
 ,, . better than commerce, 228. 
 Cholera at Haddington, 77. 
 Christian Spiritualist, 412, 413. 
 Christianity — where ? 276. 
 Christie, William, 72. 
 Church unbelieving, the, 37. 
 Church being superseded, 321. 
 Church of Scotland a lie, 218. 
 Circumcised, he is, 53. 
 Civilising the East, absurdity of, 
 
 272. 
 Clergy a drag on knowledge, 151. 
 Clergymen, general hostility to, 94. 
 Cloud-Compeller, the, 388. 
 Coarse clothes objectionable, 231. 
 Cochrane, Thomas and James, 318. 
 Codrington, Sir Betlial, 91. 
 Combe's 'Constitution of Man,' 191. 
 Common-sense and science, 161. 
 Compositing, 98. 
 Concord and discord, 120. 
 Confessional unsuccessful, 328. 
 Congenial society, 434. 
 ' Constitutional,' the, 167. 
 Consolidated Union, the, 99. 
 
 Continental journey, 192. 
 Cook's Geography, 29. 
 Co-operation, not Community, 183. 
 ' Co-operative faith, 113. 
 Cork, Lady, 359. 
 Cost of living, London, 84. 
 Cost of travelling, 1846, 306. 
 Cost of travel, 192. 
 Cousins, B. D., publisher, 100, 111, 
 
 282, 305, 308. 
 Cousins' printer's-ink, 323, 
 Court Journal, 313. 
 Creatures of circumstances, 170. 
 Cremation, 253. 
 Crime is virtue, 133. 
 Criminals, 239, 
 Crimean war, 271, 273, 27G. 
 ' Crisis,' the, 100, 105, 108, 109, 110, 
 
 112, 113, 126, 
 Crompton, Mr. and Mrs,, 'Morning 
 
 Post,' 353, 
 Crosland, Newton, 167. 
 Crowe, Mrs., ' Nightside of Nature,' 
 
 408, 409. 
 ' Cry from the Desert,' 35. 
 ' Crystal ' seeing, 412. 
 Gumming, Dr., less liberal than 
 
 Smith, 432. 
 Curries, Trinlaw% the, 320, 
 Curse, Father Ignatius, his, 319. 
 
 Daguerrotype, 221. 
 Daguerre and Talbot, 430. 
 'Daily News,' 307, 309, 310, 311. 
 Dancing, learning, 314. 
 Davidson, Manchester College, 298. 
 Day, H. H. (India-rubber Man !), 
 
 412. 
 Death not terrible enough, 224. 
 Decalogue .summarised, 132. 
 Deils and lassies, 398. 
 De Morgan, Professor, 4 
 De Prati, 102, 130, 355, 357. 
 Derby operatives, 98. 
 Detrosier, 117. 
 Devil's livery, the, 362. 
 Dewar, Perth, 99, 157. 
 Dickens, Charles, 307, 310, 407. 
 ' Dispatch ' a blackguard ]japer, 210. 
 Disraeli, 359, 360. 
 Dismption, the, 217. 
 Dissenters, 1-39. 
 ' Divine Drama,' 281, 415, 
 Divinity the only motive power, 402, 
 Divination, 405,' 411, 
 Doctrine of good and evil, 127, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 437 
 
 Doherty, Hu£?h, 8, 215, 216, 219, 
 220, 297, 298, 300, 312, 323, 407, 
 409, 413-15. 
 
 Dolpliington, 29. 
 
 Don't teach the peojile ! 191. 
 
 D'Orsay, Count, 364. 
 
 Doyle, Sir John, 148. 
 
 Dream on his ' wedding ' night, 386, 
 
 Dress important, 316. 
 
 Drummoud, Mr,, 222. 
 
 Driimmond-Hay, Tangiers, 210, 
 
 Drygate, Glasgow, 2, 15, 
 
 Dnmas, Alexander, 309. 
 
 Dunferndine, 25, 
 
 Dungeon of learning, a, 21. 
 
 Dunlop, Mr., 24. 
 
 Dunlop, Miss, 424. 
 
 Earl's daughter, an, 243. 
 Edinburgh circle, 62, 67, 152, 420, 
 Edinburgh and Rome, 278, 
 Edinburgh, reminiscence of, 379, 
 Edinburgh retrograding, 153. 
 'Edinburgh' Review,' circulation, 
 
 232. 
 Educational Institute, 311. 
 Edmunds, Judge, 41.5. 
 Eldest tirst, the, 244. 
 Elliot's Hone Ajyoccdyjjtica:, 341. 
 Emancipation of woman, 128. 
 Employment for young men, 321. 
 Enfintin, 65. 
 England, visiting, 43. 
 * England at one view,' 164. 
 England's universal mission, 294. 
 English- Catholic v. Catholic, 264. 
 English cleanliness, 44. 
 English grammar, by R. Angus 
 
 Smith, 303. 
 Engraving, 164. 
 
 Equitable and Exchange Bank, 81 . 
 Esquire — what is it ? 158. 
 Evangelical Magazine, 179. 
 Evans, H. Smith, artist, 4, 422, 
 ' Examiner,' the, 148, 
 Exhibition, 1851, 317, 
 Exhibiting in Glasgow, 78. 
 Extempore preaching, 52. 
 
 Fact, no truth in a, 144, 
 Factory system bad, 257. 
 Faith in opinion, 136. 
 ' Family Herald,' 5, 9, 101, 219, 221, 
 311, 325, 415. 
 
 criticised, 231. 
 
 the leading periodical, 240. 
 
 Father, his, 16, 49. 
 Father's blessing. 302. 
 Father's death, 302. 
 Feeling versus Thought, 143. 
 Fergusons of Auchenheath, 317. 
 Festival of all nations, 1851, 263. 
 Fido, death of dog, 361, 363. 
 Fielding, Copley, 88, 117. 
 
 Thales, 88. 
 
 Five acts of Drama, 283. 
 
 Fleas numberless, Italy, 196. 
 
 Fleming, Mr., 31, 
 
 Forster, Miss, 74, 152, 419, 424, 
 
 Fourier, Charles, 8, 209. 
 
 Fourierism, 220, 223. 
 
 Fossils, Fallopio's theory, 171. 
 
 'Fox,' dead terrier, 378. 
 
 France in revolution, 211. 
 
 France thought, a young giant, 322. 
 
 France and sensuous Calholicitv, 
 
 291. 
 'Eraser's Magazine,' 169, 201. 
 Free trade universal, or impossible, 
 
 174. 
 French pictorial art, 309. 
 French, Mr., 75. 
 
 GARLA^'DS, 149, 418. 
 Garngad Road, 2. 
 Genius in a reverie, 402. 
 Geological progression, 272. 
 Gift of tongues, 64, 178. 
 Glasgow University, 21, 23. 
 
 Library, 18. 
 
 God, his acknowledgment an axiom, 
 186. 
 
 the world ignorant of, 147. 
 
 is the Devil, 55, 61. 
 
 Gods, two, 178. 
 
 Godwin, Shelley's father-in-law, 417. 
 Goethe and Richter, 354. 
 Goldbeck, pianist, 298. 
 Goldsmith, 164, 378. 
 Good and evil, 64, 67, 118, 187. 
 j Good-living man, 424. 
 Gordon, Mr., 149. 
 Gravesend, 98. 
 Greek spirituality, 287. 
 Gregg, Mr., Hebraist, 296. 
 Grieve, Mr., 25. - 
 Greaves, J. P., mystic, 198, 207, 363. 
 
 Hagart, Mr., 24, 30, 48. 
 
 INliss, 424. 
 
 Hall, S.C, ' Art Journal,' 4. 
 Halse, W. H., 407. 
 Hamilton, Duchess Anne, 14. 
 
438 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Hamilton palace, 15. 
 
 Hamilton, Mr., Perth, 29. 
 
 Happy in Ashton, 53. 
 
 Hardinge, Mr., 407. ^ 
 
 Harle, Dr. , AM. 
 
 Harmonics, 300. 
 
 Harvey, Mr., 318. 
 
 Hawthonie, ' Scarlet Letter,' 57. 
 
 Haydens, 371, 373, 375, 407, 408. 
 
 Heathenism and the Reformation, 
 
 290. 
 Heathen temj^les, 147. 
 Heaven, monopoly of, 141. 
 Hebrew, 22, 52. 
 Hell in decay, 141, 162, 315. 
 Hen or esg first ? 88. 
 Herand, John A., poet, 201, 299. 
 Herbert, Sidney, 387. 
 Heriot's Hospital, 25. 
 Herrick, W. Salter, 407, 422. 
 Hervey, Mrs. (Athensenm), 408. 
 Heywood, Manchester, 30(5. 
 History of England, 164. 
 ' History of the Supernatural,' 6. 
 Hogarth, 'Musical Herald,' 307. 
 Holmes, Mr., British Museum, 422. 
 Holt, journalist, 165, 166, 193. 
 Homoeopathy and allopathy, 273. 
 ' Hooky Walker ' spirits, 372. 
 Hotham, Lady, 373, 375. 
 Householder, a, 150. 
 House that .Jack built, 431. 
 Houston, Miss, 73, 74. 
 Howell's letters, 164. 
 Howitt, Dr. Wm., 5, 409. 
 Human— not inhuman, 295. 
 Hunter, Robert, 420. 
 Husbands, 250. 
 Hyde, Mr., 331. 
 
 Idiots, little better than, 76. 
 ' Illustrated London News, ' 433. 
 Impecuniosity, 42, 89. 
 Imperial Union, 275. 
 Incorrigible ! he is quite, 421. 
 Individualism, 132. 
 Infidel, an honest, 236. 
 Infidels, done with them, 112. 
 Infidelity, 138. 
 ' Inquirer,' the, 432. 
 Insomnia, 386. 
 Inspiration, 125. 
 Irish Question, 231, 234, 275. 
 Irving, Edward, 16, 34, 37, 39, 87, 
 176, 177, 178. 
 
 dead, 118. 
 
 Irvingism, 149, 200, 221. 
 
 Irvingites uncharitable, 203. 
 Irving's chapel, 117. 
 Isham, Mr., an American, 377. 
 Italian, 26. 
 
 Jackson, J. A., on the /'. //., 278. 
 Jacobitism, memoirs of, 42. 
 Jenny Jones, Sweet, 377. 
 Jerrold Douglas, 307. 
 Jews, to preach to, 112. 
 Jewish emancipation, 235. 
 
 university, 286. 
 
 Jew de Brass, 358. 
 Jezreel, James J., prophet, 58. 
 Job's drama of God and Devil, 175. 
 Johnson, astrologer, 404. 
 Journeyman difiusionist, 418. 
 Juno, My dear, 388. 
 Justice, eternal, defined, 181. 
 Juvenile delinquency, 267. 
 Juvenile precocity objectionable, 
 268. 
 
 King of Terrors, Death not the, 392. 
 Kiutore, Lord, 423. 
 Koran, the, 175. 
 Knowledge, inutility of, 156. 
 Knox, Captain, 14. 
 
 Labour notes, 82. 
 
 Lady supporters, 190. 
 
 Ladies' Avork — how to dispose of ? 
 
 255. 
 Lamartiue, 236, 237. 
 Land allotment, 183, 230. 
 Language spoiled, 3. 
 Landscapes for .sale, 78, 
 Landscapes, his early, 423. 
 Latin, 25. 
 
 Lauriston Academy, Glasgow, 22, 32. 
 Law of Moses, 98. 
 Lead, Jane, 420. 
 Lecturing in Loudon, 86, 201. 
 Lee, Dr., 140. ^ 
 Lees, Samuel, 74. 
 Legends and miracles, 6, 163. 
 Leiper, Janet, 13. 
 Leroux, Pierre, and pre-existence, 
 
 340. 
 Lethame House, 14, 46. 
 Letters — opening at post-office, 229. 
 Liberty and equality, 236. 
 Liberty and law, 277. 
 Light-reading, 202. 
 Lingam, 159. 
 Linwood, Miss, 315. 
 Literary hacks, 309. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 439 
 
 Lively dream, 118. 
 Llangollen, Vale of, 376. 
 Loudon, first view of, 80. 
 London too large for scandal, 203. 
 
 the centre of the world, 294. 
 
 ' London Free Press,' 147,' 151. 
 
 'London Phalanx,' 212, 213. 
 
 Lord Lovelace, 221. 
 
 Love, exalted ideas of, 337, 348. 
 
 Love and religion, 23(5. 
 
 Liither's spirit, 11. 
 
 Lynch, Thos. T., criticism by, 296. 
 
 Lyndhiirst, Lord, 359. 
 
 Lytton, Miss, 327, 331. 
 
 Rosina Lady, 17, 56, 102, 
 
 Lytton, 
 
 325. 
 Lvtton, 
 
 Edward Bulwer, 325, 326. 
 - rapping up his mother, 370. 
 
 Macarrow, Mr., 27. 
 Macdauiel, Mary 0., 420. 
 Mackay's book, Mr., 354. 
 Mahometan Sabbath, 140. 
 Mahometanism and unity of God, 
 
 288 
 Maltlius, 430. 
 
 Man not a scientific animal, 225. 
 Manchester in 1851, 321. 
 Manufacturing village, 257. 
 Manipulative skill, -305. 
 Marbles at college, 30. 
 Marriage laws bad, 198. 
 Marriage, 205, 365. 
 with deceased wife's sister, 
 
 267. 
 Marshall, Mary Ann, 219. 
 Marston, dramatic jioet, 408. 
 'Mary Horneck,' tale, 342. 
 Maurice, Prof., 320. 
 Mechanics' institutions, origin, 269. 
 Medicals, too many, 28. 
 MedicBval student, 3. 
 Mental evolution, 34. 
 Mental ferment, 40. 
 ' Mercury's Letters on Science,' 426, 
 Messiah, the, 62, 320. 
 Messiah's kingdom, 176. 
 Miller, Mr. and Mrs., Straven, 318. 
 Millennium, the, 35, 177. 
 Mind, a unity, 428. 
 Minorities, representation of, 271. 
 ' Miriana Sedley,' a novel, 338, 339. 
 Missionary enterprise, 127. 
 Moderation in progress, 143. 
 ' Molitre : Life and Times,' 351. 
 Monks, 196. 
 ' Monthly Magazine,' 201. 
 
 ' ]\rore's Dialogues, 164. 
 Moral inquisition, a, 132. 
 Morality and prisons, 168. 
 Moral, not clerical, goveniment, 
 
 186. 
 ' More loves and fewer hatretls,' 
 
 394. 
 Morgan, Mr., 96. 
 Morison, R. J. (Zadkiel), 98, 404, 
 
 407. 
 ' Morning Chronicle,' 148, 307. 
 ' Morning Herald,' 107. 
 ' Morning Post,' 366. 
 Mosheim, Church History, 29. 
 Mother, Smith's, 17. 
 Mothers all selfish, 390. 
 Mother Nature, 170. 
 Midler, Max, 406. 
 Music, theory of, 211. 
 
 Hullah's treatise, 300. 
 
 M 'Gill, Dr., 151. 
 M'Inroy, Major, 423. 
 M'Lise, artist, 359. 
 Mythology : its value, 228. 
 
 Napiers of Kype and Letliam, 13. 
 Napier, Mrs., portrait of, 14. 
 
 Miss, 77. 
 
 Dr. James, 21, 45, 50, 51, 
 
 62, 64, 67, 74, 76, 192, .303. 
 
 Robert, 49. 
 
 Napoleon, Louis, .321. 
 
 his horoscope, 404, 406. 
 
 Nature is unity, 115. 
 
 Natural History cuts, 226. 
 
 Natural ? what is, 429. 
 
 Neal, William, socialist, 421, 422. 
 
 Neither Catholic nor Protestant, 
 
 342. 
 New Church, 117. 
 Newman, 341, 343, 344. 
 
 criticised, 264, 265. 
 
 'New Moral World,' 110, 113, 126, 
 
 188. 
 Newspaper press, 307. 
 ' New York Evangelist, ' 432. 
 Nicol's, Prof., library, 43. 
 Nightingale, Florence, 274. 
 ' Northern Star,' 232. 
 Norton, Mr. and Mrs., 379, 382, 387. 
 Number of the Beast, 21. 
 Nursery rhvmes, their meaning, 
 
 262. 
 
 Occultism, 127, 226. 
 
 ' Official Gazette ' of Union, 108. 
 
 Optical theories, 300. 
 
440 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Orthodoxy easy, 78. 
 
 untenable, 39. 
 
 Owen, Robert, 65, 81, 99, 101, 103, 
 
 105, 106, 110, 112, 117, 142, 187, 
 
 208, 312, 379. 
 
 quarrel with, 108. 
 
 and first principles, 170. 
 
 Owen's Institution, 99. 
 Owen, Robert Dale, 100, 111. 
 
 Pain, a teacher, 123. 
 
 Painting, instruction in, 80. 
 
 Palmerston and Napoleon, 322. 
 
 Pantheism, 159, 160, 179. 
 
 Parables truer than history, 308, 
 
 Paradoxes, pi'eaching, 53. 
 
 Paraguay, Jesuits in, 173. 
 
 Paris in 1838, 194. 
 
 Parcels, despatch of, 89. 
 
 Parliamentary legislation folly, 122. 
 
 Parnell's 'Hermit,' 164. 
 
 Passions all tax-gatherers, 226, 
 
 Patrons, his, 168. 
 
 ' Peer's Daughter,' the, 333. 340. 
 
 Penny Press, the, 230. 
 
 ' Penny Satirist,' 165, 167, 169, 192. 
 199, 204, 208, 215, 304, 305. 
 
 Pentateuch, 283. 
 
 ' People's Journal,' 309, 311. 
 
 Persecution wanted, true, 346. 
 
 Perth, 27, 31, 32, 75, 434. 
 
 Philanthropy and commerce in- 
 compatible, 224. 
 
 Phillips, Geo. S., on F. //,, 279, 
 
 Philippe's, Louis, horoscope, 403. 
 
 Philosophy, Smith's, 144. 
 
 Philosophy unsatisfactory, 274. 
 
 'Phalanx,' the, 8; 216, 219, 222, 
 300. 
 
 Phrenology of history, 238. 
 
 Picture papers to children, 301. 
 
 Picture, his landscape admired, 85. 
 
 Pillars of truth, the, 144, 
 
 ' Pioneer,' the, 98, 99, 102, 105, 108, 
 109, 233. 
 
 Politics, his contempt for, 212. 
 
 Politics and parties. 145. 
 
 Polytheism, 119. 
 
 Pollock (Course of Time), 25. 28. 32, 
 45, 176. 
 
 David, 84. 
 
 Poor Law, the, 235. 
 
 Poor a disgrace to us, our, 268. 
 
 Popes, bad and good, 289. 
 
 Portrait, his, 210. 
 
 Possessed of a devil, 118, 
 
 Positive and negative, 124, 
 
 Potato blight a blessing, 275. 
 
 Poverty, 126, 
 
 with refinement, 2, 
 
 Power always invisiljle, 224, 
 
 Prati De, 102, 130, 35.5, 357. 
 
 Presbyterians unfit for liberty, 33. 
 
 Press independent, 166. 
 
 Press infidel, 315, 
 
 Press, no training for it, 321. 
 
 Pressmen, unsympathetic with, 314, 
 
 Press work severe, 353. 
 
 Priests, 196, 
 I Probationer, 22, 
 
 Profiles objectionable, 189. 
 j Progress in Scotland, 434. 
 
 Prophecy, 21, 36, 213. 
 
 Prophet, hunting for a, Qi. 
 
 Proudfoot, 140, 
 
 Protestants, 151, 
 
 Protestantism, 127, 128. 
 
 Protestantism confusion, 180. 
 
 dying daily, ] 47. 
 
 Providentially provided for, 22, 91, 
 139, 155, 282, 
 
 Provisional government, Paris, 312. 
 
 Publication, 393, 400, 
 
 Publishing dangerous, 313. 
 
 Publicola, 210, 
 
 Puritan father, 2, 
 
 Purity produced by bigotry, 349. 
 
 Purgatory of the Church, 129. 
 
 Purser, water-colour artist, 88, 
 
 Quakerism induces stupidity, 268. 
 Queen as an author, 227. 
 Questionable finance, 68. 
 
 Radicals, 103. 
 Rebecca, 358, 378. 
 Refined home, 18. 
 Reichenbach's Odic light, 260. 
 Religious excitement, 21, 
 Reminiscence of youth, 430. 
 Restaurants, 194, 
 Returning to Glasgow, 55. 
 Revelation, 161, 
 
 a vineyard, 184. 
 
 progressive, 135. 
 
 Richter, Jean Paul, 354, 
 Rippingill, E,V,, artist, 410. 
 Robertson, ed, ' Mechanics' Maga- 
 zine,' 270, 
 Robinson Crusoe in literature, 383. 
 Robson, artist, 88. 
 Rogers the poet, 359. 
 Royal Asiatic Society, 157, 
 Rome compared. 195. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 441 
 
 Romanism, 127, 128. 
 
 Romanists, 150. 
 
 Roman jubilee, 263. 
 
 Roman power, 287. 
 
 Ruskin to working men, 272. 
 
 Russian prospects good, 270. 
 
 Rymers, Mrs., 414. 
 
 Ryves, Miss Rebecca, 326, 330, 339. 
 
 Sanctus Wilfridus, 318. 
 Sanity of charity, 262, 263. 
 Satan, 10, 11, 64. 
 Scandal refused attention, 208. 
 Science becoming general, 427. 
 
 its defects, 160. 
 
 and religion, 15.1, 
 
 Sciences not socialised, 183. 
 Scotland and the Scotch, 266, 350. 
 
 more spiritualised, 278. 
 
 Scotch pound notes, 44. 
 Scotch education cheap, 233. 
 Scott, Prof. A. T., criticism, 299. 
 Scott Russell, 21. 
 " Scotsman," 6. 
 Scriptural pantheist, 10. 
 Sevastopol, ' Family Herald ' at, 
 
 249. 
 'Shepherd,' the, 6, 111, 113, 115, 
 
 117, 126, 127, 139, 145, 157, 163, 
 
 165, 419. 
 Shakespeare wants elevation, 260. 
 
 his works, 225. 
 
 Shiloh, 70, 71, 72,91, 155. 
 
 Sketching, 20. 
 
 Albert Smith's * Mephistopheles,' 
 
 307. 
 Smithism, 163. 
 Smith's own story, 334. 
 Smith, Miss Jessie Knox, 316. 
 Smith, John, 13. 
 
 Joseph, 19, 154, 157, 164, 
 
 202. 
 
 Micaiah, 19, 48, 73, 146, 149, 
 
 153, 195, 210, 215, 302. 
 
 Dr. Robert Angus, LL.D., 
 
 F.R.S. Glasgow and Edin., 4, 
 17, 149, 150, 153, 193, 221, 227, 
 303, 316, 325, 417, 431. 
 
 Thomas, 98, 204, 207. 
 
 Socialism, 95, 172, 223. 
 Society of Civilisation and Progress, 
 Paris, 105. 
 
 of Jesus, 172. 
 
 Sorrow, the use of it, 266. 
 Southcott, Joanna, 42, 58, 149, 153, 
 
 420. 
 Spalding, George, 70, 75. 
 
 Spaniard's view, US. 
 Spectator, 148. 
 Sphere of efl'ects, 410. 
 Spinoza, 209. 
 Spirit, the, 92. 
 
 letter from the, 213. 
 
 Spirit rapping ! 368. 
 
 Spiritualism and Materialism, 119. 
 
 ' Spiritualist,' 433. 
 
 Spiritual awaking general, 418. 
 
 Spiritualism an assumption, 411. 
 
 'Spiritual Herald,' Smith an editor, 
 
 9, 416. 
 'Spiritual Magazine,' 4, 219, 415, 
 
 433. 
 ' Spiritual Telegraph,' critique, 296. 
 Stanley, John, 74. 
 
 junior, 139. 
 
 Stays, wearing none I 252. 
 Stenhouse, Miss, 85. 
 Stewart, Robert, 70, 71. 
 Strathaven and Castle, 14, 15, 20. 
 
 friends, 317. 
 
 Stone, G. W., 371, 373. 
 St. Simon, 65, 102. 
 Stupid school-books, 301. 
 Style — how obtainable ? 254. 
 Sunday reading, F. H. tabooed, 253. 
 Supporters of 'Shepherd,' 165. 
 Superstition, revival of, 266. 
 Supernal theology, 371. 
 Sweating system, the, 239. 
 System of Nature, 114, 136. 
 
 Taylor, 117, 142. 
 Teaching, 24. 
 Teetotalism, 199, 254. 
 Tellurism, 130. 
 Tennant, John, 217. 
 ' The Revolt of the Bees/ 96. 
 ' The True Sun,' 101, 102, 167. 
 Thomson, Joseph, artist, 14. 
 
 James, \v^riter, 13. 
 
 'The Coming Man,' 5, 426, 431. 
 
 Theological monster, a, 308. 
 
 Theatres, 89. 
 
 ' Theatrical Journal ' on Smith, 261. 
 
 ' Theory of Light,' 213, 214. 
 
 Thin-skinned people, 227. 
 
 Thoughts only will be left, 385. 
 
 Throne-supporting, tired of, 155. 
 
 'Times,' 167. 
 
 ' Tiber,' happy dog, 378. 
 
 Tired of life, 368. 
 
 Tobacco, dislike of, 226. 
 
 Tolmie, Dr. William Eraser, 5. 
 
 Tongues, gift of, 64, 178. 
 
 2g 
 
44<2 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Tonnsni dead, old, 103. 
 * Tracts for the Times,' 213. 
 Trade Lad, 91. 
 Translating Fouriur, 212. 
 Trinity, 121. 
 
 Trutli^ the reformer, 120. 
 Tapper's ' Ode to the World,' 261, 
 Type-setting machine, 212. 
 Tvtler, Dr., 76, 419. 
 
 Union, grand consolidated, 105, 
 
 the spirit of, 275. 
 
 power of, 104. 
 
 Unionist, a, 153. 
 Unity of God and Devil, 142.^ 
 Universal life, principle of, 171. 
 Universalism, 114, 129, 221. 
 
 secures sanity, 403. 
 
 Universalist, 131. 
 Universal church, 204. 
 
 happiness, 132. 
 
 pardon, 141. 
 
 suffrage, 162. 
 
 Uuorthodoxy growing, 37. 
 Ure, Dr., 151. 
 Utopia, Smith's, 162. 
 
 Vallance, Dr., 320. 
 
 ]\Iargaret, 318. 
 
 Valentines rubbish, 253. 
 'Veritas, 'letter of, 330. 
 Vegetarianism, 199, 263. 
 Vetturinos, 197. 
 • Vicar of Wakefield ' tabooed in 
 
 Paris, 322. 
 Visitation of the Spirit, 146. 
 ' Voice of the People,' 141. 
 Voltaire's ' Zadig,' 164. 
 Vulgar are mere beasts, the, 217. 
 
 Walker, Miss Catherine, 68, 70, 73, 
 
 152, 424. 
 'Wandering Jew,' by Eugene Sue, 
 
 229, 304. 
 'Wanted' a wife, 249. 
 Watch— none at 29,-48. 
 ' Watchman ' refuses advt., 182. 
 
 'Weeklv Chronicle,' the. 104, 166, 
 
 193. 
 'Weekly Dispatch, '305. 
 ' Weekly Herald,' 154, 193. 
 Welch, Mrs., 205. 
 VVetherall, Sir -Jharles, 233. 
 ^Vlleeler, Mrs,. 90, 102, 148, 205, 
 
 325, 335. 
 Whig ministries unstable, 33. 
 White, William, author, 326. 
 Wife, a iealous, 251. 
 Wilkinson, Dr. J. Garth, 6, 298, 
 
 407. 
 Will, the moving power of nature, 
 
 271. 
 Wiseman, Dr., 151. 
 Witchcraft, individual revelation, 
 
 137. 
 • Witness,' the, a sad bigot, 206. 
 Woman and Nature, 160. 
 Woman, doctrine of the, 57, 63, 65. 
 Women, 348, 380, 382, 387, 395, 400, 
 401. 
 
 his faith in, 133. 
 
 elevation of, 270, 292. 
 
 in Greece, 286. 
 
 in East and West, 239. 
 
 less refined to-day, 241. 
 
 , some ! 332. 
 
 Women's rights, 277. 
 
 Woodhouse, G, Doveton, on F. II., 
 
 278. 
 Woodley, Captain, 112. 
 Wooers, fierce, 242. 
 Words, value of, 93. 
 ! Words without thoughts, 235. 
 Working habits, 303. 
 Wolff, Joseph, 175. 
 Wrinkles on brow, 252. 
 Wroe, John, 44, 45, 46 et seq., 60, 
 
 69, 109, 139. 
 Wyndham Lewis, Mrs. 359. 
 
 YONI, 159. 
 
 Young's composing machine, 220. 
 
 Zadkiel, 98, 404, 405, 406, 407, 411. 
 Zimpel, Dr., 408. 
 
 PRINTED BY NEILL AND COMPANY, EDINBURGH. 
 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 
 This book is due on the date indicated below, or at the 
 expiration of a definite period after the date of borrowing, as 
 provided by the library rules or by special arrangement with 
 the Librarian in charge. 
 
 DATE BORROWED 
 
 DATE BORROWED 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 C28(94e)MIOO 
 
 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 
 0025985060 
 
 938 .91 Sm63 
 
 Siriith 
 » ShSTDherd^ Smith the UnJTersalist,