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as friends of his maturer life, Ticknor, Everett, Palfrey, it might almost have been said of them, as of a bereaved father at the loss of his son, that they would not exchange their dead friend for others' living ones.

Perhaps the friend who shared the most of his confidence, after his return from Europe, was the Rev. S. C. Thacher. The strength of their attachment survived that which is said to be the severest test of either love or friendship,-travelling and voyaging together. After their return, no day passed that they did not meet in the study of Buckminster, and they usually dined together. Their literary efforts were submitted each to the supervision of the other; and they maintained the most jealous watch over each other's literary reputation. Mr. Thacher fulfilled, with exquisite tenderness, taste, and beauty, the duty of surviving friendship, in the memoir prefixed to the first volume of Buckminster's Sermons.' Their names have since lived united in hearts of sensibility, twined together by the fragrant wreath with which a kindred genius has bound them.*

The two friends stood together in the same relation to another, whose memory should not be allowed to die out of the record of those whose hearts were comforted by his kindness, or whose characters were improved by his counsels. Dr. Kirkland was fifteen years older than Buckminster, and eleven years his senior in college; Thacher was a year younger, and four years after him in the records of Alma

* Rev. F. W. P. Greenwood, in his Memoir of Rev. Samuel Cooper Thacher.

Mater: both these young men appeared as younger brothers to Dr. Kirkland. During all the time which has elapsed since the death of the latter, friendship and admiration have not attempted to perpetuate his memory by a selection from his admirably wise discourses. Where shall the next generation search for memorials of Kirkland, in order to embalm his memory before it shall have faded away?*

There are some still living who remember the noble and venerable qualities of Dr. Kirkland,-who remember how he united, in a beautiful approximation, the kindest affections with the very spirit of wisdom, the keenest discernment with the gentlest judgment of human infirmities.' He was truly a wise man, for wisdom is that exercise of the reason into which the heart enters; and if any infirmities were discerned in the exercise of his judgment, they arose from the too large proportion of heart which entered in, and perhaps disturbed the equilibrium of the clearest intellect. His insight into character was most penetrating; he could command the nicest dissecting powers, capable of dividing the germs of good which lie in every character from the mass of evil with which education and circumstance has involved them. His sarcasm was pungent, but his kindness of heart forbade him often to use its diamond point. He saw through the motives of men's actions, even before they were themselves aware from what point they sprang; and how often was a young person first made acquainted with an unconscious fault or foible,

* Except in the Discourses of the Rev. Drs. Parkman, Palfrey, and Young.

by the delicacy of the keen remark that apologized for it, or the still keener irony which defended it!

He rarely entered into disputation or argument, but he saw the whole field of controversy; and such was his gentleness and urbanity, that he seemed to yield to others at the very moment he was leading them to clearer views; and the light that he threw upon a subject, bringing his opponent out of his difficulties, seemed to the disputant to have arisen in his own mind, and he to remain master of the victory which Dr. Kirkland had taught him how to win. If hypocrisy and cant drew from him a keen sarcasm, cruelty and ingratitude excited indignation which sometimes found expression in the strongest terms of reprobation and contempt. His aphorisms in conversation partook of the mingled irony of Rochefoucault and the tender humor of Sterne. Could he have condescended to admit the admiration of a Boswell, what a rich store of anecdote and shrewd remark might have been preserved, as it dropped from his lips in the quiet bonhommie of familiar conversation!

His character should be drawn by an able and discriminating pen. May we not hope, that, beside the cold and perishable marble, which is now the only memorial of him, we may have a living portrait, drawn by the heart-inspired hand of genius, which shall consecrate his memory in the hearts of those who loved him, and make him known to other generations?

1808.

THE year 1808 was one of great activity Aged 24. in the life of the son, and of great interest in that of the father. The former begins it by recording in his journal his desire to find and read those books that induce to Christian union. Nearly at this period began the controversy in the churches which resulted in their disunion. He was one of those who as ardently desired union as Lord Falkland desired. peace in the great civil war; and yet, had he lived, he must inevitably have taken his part in the protest which one portion of the Church were compelled to make against what they considered existing errors. Their protest was not made till these errors were beginning to be established, as they thought, by being made part of creeds to be subscribed, contrary to the spirit of freedom in the New England churches.

Mr. Buckminster was now twenty-four years old, the age when men are just beginning a course of action which is to result in the benefit and improvement of their fellow-men. It is with most persons

CHANGES IN SOCIETY.

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was certainly one of the most remarkable men among his contemporaries, was settled at twenty-three, and had just begun his beneficent work. With my brother, also, it was but the beginning of life, and, had he lived to old age, he would probably have looked back to the produce of these years as but of immature and unripe fruit, the feeble commencement of a future and abundant hárvest. He mentions in his journal being much moved by Mr. Channing's sermon upon Ministerial Zeal, at the ordination of Mr. John Codman, and records a prayer that it may have its proper effect upon his heart.

Both these young men entered upon active life at a period when great changes were taking place in the community of which they were members. For half a century, the active and the educated intellect of the country had been absorbed by subjects connected with the war of Independence, and the excitement of mind produced by the principles of the French Revolution. Things had now settled, after the tumult and terror of the war. Men felt the security of property; prosperity, and peace, and leisure made them begin to look about them for higher sources of enjoyment than merely ostentatious pleasures, or the luxuries of social life. The greater part, perhaps, were absorbed in what is said to be an exciting occupation, the accumulation of property, adding dollar to dollar, and acre to acre; but there were others, who wished for purer pleasures and more elevating enjoyments. To both these young men belongs the honor of being leaders in the social movement which began about this period of time.

The first change, perhaps, was a new impulse