IN THE NEW ENGLAND ATMOSPHERE -1851-1853 539 



We are still trying to save souls in the Five Points.&quot; 

 &quot;Oh,&quot; said Mr. Greeley, &quot;go along! go along! In my 

 opinion, there ain t half so many men damned as there 

 ought to be. 9 



But though Chapin s influence did not restrain Greeley 

 at all times, it undoubtedly did much for him, and it did 

 much for us of the younger generation; for it not only 

 broadened our views, but did something to better our 

 hearts and raise our aims. 



In this mention of the forces which acted upon my reli 

 gious feelings I ought to include one of a somewhat dif 

 ferent sort. There was one clergyman whose orthodoxy, 

 though not of an extreme type, was undoubted, and who 

 exercised a good and powerful influence upon me. This 

 was the Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon, pastor of the First Con 

 gregational church in New Haven. He was a man of 

 great intellectual power, a lover of right and hater of 

 wrong, a born fighter on the side of every good cause, 

 at times pungent, witty, sarcastic, but always deeply in 

 earnest. There was a general feeling among his friends 

 that, had he not gone into the church, he would have been 

 eminent in political life ; and that is my belief, for he was 

 by far the most powerful debater of his time in the coun 

 cils of his church, and his way of looking at great ques 

 tions showed the characteristics of a really broad-minded 

 statesman. His sermons on special occasions, as at 

 Thanksgiving and on public anniversaries, were noted for 

 their directness and power in dealing with the greater 

 moral questions before the people. On the other hand, 

 there was a saying then current, &quot;Dull as Dr. Bacon when 

 he s nothing but the Gospel to preach&quot;; but this, like so 

 many other smart sayings, was more epigrammatic than 

 true: even when I heard him preach religious doctrines 

 in which I did not at all believe, he seemed to me to show 

 his full power. 



Toward the end of my college course I was subjected to 

 the influence of two very powerful men, outside of the uni 

 versity, who presented entirely new trains of thought to 



