Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/45

Rh with the greatest pleasure to this excellent discourse, which was permeated by the inner life of the speaker, as by a strong, though somewhat imprisoned fire. There was talent, power, clearness, light. Yet for all that, the warmth of inspiration was wanting. I am in the meantime glad to have heard a female speaker, perfect in her way. The room was quite full, and she was listened to with evident admiration.

I have heard speak of two young ladies who, in this assembly, utter sometimes inspired words. But I did not hear them. This meeting closed as the former had done, by two of the elders rising and shaking hands with each other.

Monday.—I have to-day, my little heart, read for the first time in its entirety the American Declaration of Independence, about which the world has heard so much, and I with them. I read it in the very same hall where it was subscribed; and you must also hear it, that is to say, its first principles, because they contain the rights and privileges of the new humanity in the New World. It says:—

“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator w t i t h inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that wherever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends,