348 EXCURSION TO ALBANY. [CHAP. XXXIX. 



substantiationists, or any term which simply expressed 

 their opposition to some one article of the Romanist 

 creed, had been fixed upon them. When the rigid 

 Calvinism of the old Puritans caused a schism in New 

 England, the seceders wished to free themselves from 

 the fetters of a creed, and to take the Gospel alone as 

 their standard of faith. They were naturally, therefore, 

 averse to accept a name which might be generally 

 supposed to imply that they attached a prominent 

 importance to the negation of any one doctrine pro 

 fessed by other Christians. &quot; I desire,&quot; said Chan- 

 ning, &quot; to wear the livery of no party ; but we accept 

 the appellation which others have imposed upon us, 

 because it expresses what we believe to be a truth, 

 and therefore we ought not to shrink from the re 

 proaches cast upon it. But, had the name been 

 more honoured, had no popular cry been raised against 

 it, I would gladly have thrown it off.&quot; * 



May 11. Sailed from New York to Albany in 

 a steamer, which carried me at the rate of eighteen 

 miles an hour through the beautiful scenery of the 

 Hudson river. I had been invited by two of the 

 State surveyors of New York to make an excursion 

 with them to the north of Albany, and to discuss in 

 the field some controverted points respecting the 

 geology of the oldest fossiliferous strata. There was 

 a physician on board, who, having been settled for 

 twenty-six years in Virginia, had now come back, 

 after that long absence, to see his native State. His 

 admiration and wonder at the progress made by New 

 York in a quarter of a century were unbounded. 



Charming s Works, vol. iii. p. 210. 



