Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/132

Rh logical, perspicuous, glorious in subject and in elaboration. It was to me a spiritual feast. He started with the idea of a personal God in opposition to that of the pantheist, everywhere and nowhere; developing from that divine personality the thence derived doctrine of duty, of social law, of beauty, of immortality as applicable to every man, to every human society, and proved how merely upon this ground Christian Socialism, or Christian community, could become stable, could advance humanity to its highest purpose. Channing did not this time interrupt himself once; he did not replace a single word, carried along by a continued inspiration, sustained by an enthusiasm without extravagance, without passion, never violating the law of beauty, and with a polemical creed which never wounded the divine law. He merely once said in a somewhat sharper tone, that the “person who did not in his own breast become conscious of the duality of human nature, who did not combat with a lower self, is either without humanity, or is deeply to be pitied.”

The hall was quite full of people, and the profoundest attention prevailed. At the close of the oration a circle of congratulating friends gathered around Channing. I saw even the speaker of the former evening, Mr. H. James, go forward to Channing, lay his hand upon his shoulder, as if caressingly, as he said “You have done me an injustice; you have misunderstood me!” He seemed pale and agitated, but perfectly kind.

I went in a little carriage alone with Channing from Brooklyn to New York this evening, and remarked how desirous he seemed of dissipating his thoughts and occupying them with subjects foreign to that of the lecture. Now, as he took me back to the carriage and we were about to separate (he was to remain in New York, and I was returning to Brooklyn), I could not avoid saying to him, “How happy you must have felt this evening!”