Page:John Brown (1899).pdf/105

 was going to do something which might make his name famous, and that this something was in a high degree hazardous. "I think I have several good reasons for this," he went on in his letter. "I would be glad that my posterity should not only remember their parentage, but also the cause they labored in. I do not expect to leave these parts under four or five days, and will try to write again before I go off. I am much confused in mind, and cannot remember what I wish to write." A long letter which Brown wrote from Iowa to F. B. Sanborn shows that his heart was very heavy at this time. His family were practically unprovided for, ill-lodged, poorly fed, and his young children not at school. He felt strongly that he had parted from them forever. Yet something drove him on irresistibly: no pressure could have made him turn back. He was, moreover, out of conceit with all the leading influences then working