To the Same.
Nov. 9, 1864.
CHARMING! I will be as bad as I can. Talk about being "useful to
the world"! If the people that do the most good, or get it to be
clone,--same thing,--are to be sought for, are n't they the wicked
ones? Where had been the philanthropists, heroes, martyrs, but for
them? [275] Where had been Clark, and Wilberforce, but for the
slave-catchers? Where Howard, but for cruel sailors? Where Brace, but
for naughty boys? Where our noble President of the Sanitary, but for
the wicked Rebels? And how should I ever have known that Mrs. Lane was
capable of such a fine and eloquent indignation, if, instead of being
a bad boy, "neglecting the opportunities" thrown in my way, I had been
just a good sort of middle-aged man, "in the prime of life," doing
as I ought? Really, there ought to be a society got up to make bad
people,--they are so useful! I heard a man say of Bellows, the other
day in the cars, "He is a noble man!" And it was an Orthodox, formerly
a member and elder of Dr. Spring's church. And what do you think he
said to me? "Don't you remember me?"--"No."--"Don't you remember when
you were a young man, in Dodge Sayre's bookstore, that Jasper Corning
and I set up a Sunday-school for colored people in Henry Street, and
that you taught in it for several months? And a good teacher you were,
too." Not a bit of it. Oh, dear me! I hope there are some other good
things which I have done in the world that I don't remember. "A grand
sermon," you heard last Sunday, hey? And then went to the "Century"
Rooms, to see the decorations of the Bryant Festival! It seems to me
that was rather a queer thing to do, after sermon! You will have to
write a letter to me immediately, to relieve my anxieties about your
religious education. Was the text, "And they rose up early on the
morrow and offered burnt sacrifices and brought peace offerings; and
the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play "? See
the same, Exodus xxxii. 6. [276] There! I am not in deep waters, you
see, but skimming on the surface, except when I subscribe myself your
abused, scolded, but
Faithful friend,