( H9 ) 



CHAPTER VI. 



LITERARY STRUGGLES. 

 1 839-1 844. 



IN his diary of January 4, 1839, Philip Gosse has re- 

 corded : " I spent an hour or two in walking through 

 the public burial-ground of Mobile. Many of the epitaphs 

 were ridiculous, but some very touching. I felt my spirit 

 softened and melted by some of the testimonials of affec- 

 tion, and I could not refrain from tears. Then I went on 

 board the ship Isaac Newton, lying in the bay, and so bade 

 adieu to American land, probably for ever." This melan- 

 choly note is not inappropriate to mark what was in fact a 

 great crisis in his career, while the prophecy in the last 

 words was actually fulfilled, since though his activity in the 

 New World" was by no means at an end, he was never to 

 set foot on the American continent again. 



As a part of the fresh religious zeal which he had roused 

 in himself during his latest weeks in Alabama, he began 

 on board the Isaac Newton the practice of speaking on 

 the condition of their souls to those into whose company 

 he was thrown. This habit he preserved, with varying 

 intensity, till the end of his life, and in process of time it 

 became easy and natural to him to exhort and to ex- 

 amine. But it was difficult enough at first, and nothing 

 but an overwhelming conviction that it was his duty would 

 have enabled him to overcome his reluctance. He was 



