LETTERS TO REV. DR. W. B. SPRAGUE. 293 



is infatuated and deceived, and it is madness to contemplate 

 an indefinite augmentation of this black population. The 

 national sentiment seems now to be maturing to the con- 

 clusion, that, as slavery is the cause of our troubles, it 

 must in some way be destroyed, Heaven grant that it may 

 be done in a way consistent with justice, mercy, and right- 

 eousness ! 



TO REV. DR. W. B. SPRAGUE. 



NEW HAVEN, June 15, 1861. 



I ALSO have been impressed with the large har- 

 vesting, of late, of wise and good people, who have been, 

 perhaps, taken away from the evil to come. The death of 

 Judge White of Salem, inflicted a loss upon me as well as 

 yourself. I knew him first at Salem, where I delivered a 

 course of Geology in September, 1834, and it was my first 

 effort out of Connecticut. Judge White was an attentive 

 hearer, and a constant one. You, I presume, have seen his 

 large library of literature, rather than science, which, al- 

 though it was appreciated by him, was not his first love. 

 After the course was finished, he remarked to me to this 

 effect : " When in your introductory, you said that Geology 

 was among the natural sciences, second only to astronomy 

 in grandeur and sublimity, I doubted, but I must now 

 in the language of the courts say, you have made out your 

 case, and are entitled to a favorable verdict." From that 

 time on we were friends, and occasionally met in Boston, 

 Cambridge, and Salem, and once in my own house. He 

 was a lovely gentleman, a fine scholar, and, I hope well 

 for him, although he differed from us. Does not the more 

 enlarged experience from progress in life tend to increase 

 our charity, and have you not found even your own liberal 

 and catholic mind enlarged by your peculiar labors of late 

 years, so as to embrace more of your fellow-men within the 

 circle of your charity ? Judge Shaw and Judge White were 

 hardly divided in death. Like yourself, my dear friend, 



