446 A Century of /Science 



his buggy over a steep mountain road, the horse 

 shied so violently as to throw out the venerable 

 sage against a wood-pile, whereupon sundry loose 

 logs fell upon his head and shoulders, inflicting 

 fatal wounds. Then a note of consternation min 

 gled with the genuine mourning of the little com 

 munity. It was a perplexing providence. About 

 twelve months afterward I made my first visit 

 to these people, in company with my friend Dr. 

 William James and five carriage-loads of city folk 

 who were spending the summer at Petersham. It 

 was a Saturday morning, and all the worshippers 

 were in their best clothes. They received us with 

 a quiet but cordial welcome, and showed us into 

 a spacious parlour that was simply brilliant with 

 cheerfulness. Its west windows looked down upon 

 a vast and varied landscape, with rich pastures, 

 smiling cornfields, and long stretches of pine forest 

 covering range upon range of hills moulded in 

 forms of exquisite beauty. Beyond the foreground 

 of delicate yellow and soft green tints the eye rested 

 upon the sombre green of the woodland, and be 

 hind it all came the rich purple of the distant hills, 

 fitfully checkered with shadows from the golden 

 clouds. Here and there gleamed the white church 

 spires of some secluded hamlet, while on the hori 

 zon, seventy miles distant, arose the lofty peak of 



