Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

34 LETTERS.
altar; and he stops with a troubled doubt whether
all is to be destroyed; and if destroyed, wherewith
shall he build anew? He looks upward for the conming dawn, and calls it transcendentalism. The Calvinist at work with strong arm and sincere heart at
his fiery forge, fashioning the melted metal in timehonored moulds, sees a light, before which his fires
grow dim, and the moulded forms seem rigid and uncouth. Perplexed, he asks if the martyred fathers
did die for a faith that must be thrown aside like a
useless stove of last year's patent. His grim iron
forms return no answer, for there is not in them that
which can answer the earnest questionings of the human soul. He too looks upward, sees the light, and
calls it Perfectionism.
Having accidentally fallen into this vein of thought
brings Emerson to my remembrance. How absurdly
the Unitarians are behaving, after all their talk about
liberality, the sacredness of individual freedom, free
utterance of thought, etc. If Emerson's thoughts
are not their thoughts, can they not reverence them,
inasmuch as they are formed and spoken in freedom?
I believe the whole difficulty is, they are looking outwardly to what the logical opponents will say, not
inwardly with calm investigation. I am not at all
disturbed by what any man believes, or what he disbelieves; and as for the Unitarian views, they arise
from doubts too familiar to my own mind to be intolerant at this period of my life. But I do like to
have men utter their thoughts honestly, and not be
afraid that it will not do to break down old forms.
Of the many who make an outcry about Emerson's
scruples concerning the sacrament, what proportion
do you suppose really regard that institution as sa