of Jeremy Bentham, who carried me to Bentham's house, and showed me, with much veneration, the apartments in which the philosopher lived. Especially his library, and the closet adjoining, in which Bentham was wont to receive his guests. He made me remark that there were but two chairs in the apartment, as it was his invariable rule to receive but one person at a time. Every distinguished person in Europe, he said, had been here at some time, including Talleyrand. …
"But at all events it [conversation] must be sought and conducted as a religious rite. I think we all have owed some of the best hours and some of the grandest promises of our being to conversation, when all frivolous and disturbing accidents were removed, and the imagination was free to play, and, in happy hour, men emulated each other and provoked each other to read the deep secrets of Nature."
COURAGE
The lecture "Courage" was given in Boston at the Music Hall to Mr. Parker's Society in November, 1859. These were days of great excitement both in the North and South, for the brave but desperate attempt of John Brown to seize the United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, arm the slaves, who, he supposed, would flock to him, and lead them quickly along the Appalachian chain to Canada, had failed, and its leader, wounded, was on trial for his life in Virginia. This event had precipitated the issue between slavery and freedom, and begun to open the eyes of Northern people to the uselessness and unworthiness of their long submission to Southern dictation in hope of preserving the Union, and with it a
