JOSEPH HENRY THAYER. (J61 



the effect of immediate surroundings. His father, so far as I can ascer- 

 tain, was one of those Congregationalists of the milder type who, while 

 strict in their opinions, are led by a sunny temperament to be genial with 

 their households and to allow them innocent amusements. The mother 

 was a Congregationalist, firm but not severe in her opinions ; but always 

 controlled by that indomitable New England conscience of the older time 

 which made her sacrifice herself to every call of charity and even to 

 refuse, as tradition says, to have window curtains in her house, inasmuch 

 as many around her could not even buy blankets. Add to this the fact 

 that Boston was then a great missionary centre, that several prominent 

 leaders in this cause were of the Scudder family and the house was a sort 

 of headquarters for them, and that Horace Scudder's own elder brother, 

 whose memoirs he wrote, went as a missionary to India, dying at his post. 

 Speaking of his father's family in this memoir, he says of it, " In the 

 conduct of the household, there was recognition of some more profound 

 meaning in life than could find expression in mere enjoyment of living ; 

 while the presence of a real religious sentiment banished that counterfeit 

 solemnity which would hang over innocent pleasure like a cloud" (Scud- 

 der's Life of David Coit Scudder, p. 4). By one bred in such an atmos- 

 phere of self-sacrifice, that quality may well be imbibed ; it may even 

 become a second nature, so that the instinctive demand for self-assertion 

 may become secondary until a man ends in simply finding contentment 

 in doing perfectly the appointed work of every day. If we hold as we 

 should that it is character, not mere talent, which ennobles life, we may 

 well feel that there is something not merely pardonable, but ennobling in 

 such a habit of mind. Viewed in this light, his simple devotion to 

 modest duty may well be to many of us rather a model than a thing to 

 be criticised. 



Thomas Wentworth Higginson. 



JOSEPH HENRY THAYER. 



Joseph Henry Thayer was born in Boston, November 7, 1828. 

 He graduated from Harvard in 1850, spent one year (1854-55) in the 

 Harvard Divinity School, graduated from the Andover Theological 

 Seminary in 1857, and was minister of the Crombie Street Church in 

 Salem from 1859 to 1864 ; a part of this time, from September, 1862 to 

 May, 1863, he served as Chaplain of the Fortieth Infantry Regiment 

 of Massachusetts Volunteers. His career as teacher began in 1864, 



