Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/70

Rh who came hither with their little baby from New York, solely to offer me their house as my home when there. They were so beautiful and so earnestly kind; there appeared to me to be something so pure, so single-minded about them; they seemed to speak so entirely from their own honest hearts, that I was glad to accept their invitation, and to arrange to go to them before I took up my quarters in any other homes, as I had promised to do for a time. Among others that of Miss Lynch. It seems as if I should scarcely be obliged to pay anything for my living in this country, if I am to continue being thus entertained. But I must not expect that it will be thus everywhere. Besides, it has its disadvantages, as well as its advantages and its great pleasures.

Mr. and Mrs. S., who are of the class called Socialists and Abolitionists, and who belong to the Liberal Movement Party in the country, are universally acknowledged to be remarkably noble and estimable people. “From them,” said Mr. Downing, “you will hear what is going forward in this party, and you will probably see at their house William Henry Channing, one of our most distinguished lecturers and extempore speakers, and through him you may become acquainted with Emerson.”

I cannot tell you, my Agatha, how fortunate I esteem myself, that immediately at the commencement of my visit here, I have come into contact with so profoundly thinking and so universally comprehensive a mind as that of Mr. Downing, and who, besides, is so indescribably kind to me, and so careful that I shall derive every possible advantage from my journey, and see everything, both good and bad, in their true light. He never dictates, never instructs me, but now and then, and as if by chance, he mentions to me the names of persons who are active for the future of the New World in one way or another, and makes me observant of what is going on in the country.