Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/389

Rh far above any charlatanism. But this clear-sighted soul lives at the expense of the body which becomes, as it were, more and more transparent and spirit-like.

At the house of my good doctor I have again seen many of my dear Boston friends, and made some new and interesting acquaintances, among whom is the Unitarian minister, Dr. Garratt.

Monday.—I heard in Nahant church yesterday an excellent sermon by Mr. Bellows—one of those beautiful discourses from the very centre of Christianity; such a one as ought to be preached by the sea, the great sea in which all the individual waves rise and sink as in one general maternal bosom: as all separate Christian sects and creeds in the ocean of Christian love.

I had in the evening, the great pleasure of conversing with two cultivated and thinking women of my acquaintance, about the ladies of America; of that deficiency of many-sided development, that deficiency of instinct for the higher human interests, and of that want of ability for conversation which is found in so great a number. These amiable ladies, themselves distinguished in all respects, agree with me in many of my observations, and, like myself, cannot see any means of alleviating these deficiences, expecting by a more thorough system of cultivation, a more broad and general development of mind. And many are the signs which seem to make this inevitable, if woman will maintain the esteem of their own sex as well as that of the men. Men have in general, at this time, more gallantry than actual esteem for women. They are polite to them, ready to comply with their wishes; but they regard them evidently more as pretty children than as their reasonable equals, and do not give them their society when they seek strengthening food for soul and thought. The many beautiful examples which one meets to the contrary, of a perfect relationship between the two sexes, cannot be said to belong to the rule.