CHAP. V.] THE TABERNACLE AT BOSTOiN. 77 



pray, and &quot;go up&quot; at Boston; but, as it was intended merely 

 for a temporary purpose, the fabric Avould have been very slight 

 and insecure, had not the magistrates, fearing that it might fall 

 into the street and kill some of the passers-by, interposed in 

 good time, and required the architect to erect a substantial edi 

 fice. When the society of the Millerites was bankrupt, this 

 Tabernacle was sold and fitted up as a theater ; and there, in the 

 course of the winter, we had the pleasure of seeing Mr. and Mrs. 

 Kean perform Macbeth. Although under no apprehensions that 

 the roof would fall in, yet, as all the seats were stuffed with hay, 

 and there was only one door, we had some conversation during 

 the performance as to what might be our chance of escape in the 

 event of a fire. Only a few months later the whole edifice was 

 actually burned to the ground, but fortunately no lives were lost. 

 In one of the scenes of Macbeth, where Hecate is represented as 

 going up to heaven, and singing, &quot; Now I m furnished for the 

 flight Now I fly,&quot; &c., some of our party told us they were 

 reminded of the extraordinary sight they had witnessed in that 

 room on the 23d of October of the previous year, when the walls 

 were all covered with Hebrew and Greek texts, and when a 

 crowd of devotees were praying in their ascension robes, in hourly 

 expectation of the consummation of all things. 



I observed to one of my New England friends, that the num 

 ber of Millerite proselytes, and also the fact that the prophet of 

 the nineteenth century, Joseph Smith, could reckon at the lowest 

 estimate 60,000 followers in the United States, and, according 

 to some accounts, 120,000, did not argue much in favor of the 

 working of their plan of national education. &quot; As for the Mor 

 mons,&quot; he replied, &quot;you must bear in mind that they were largely 

 recruited from the manufacturing districts of England and Wales, 

 and from European emigrants recently arrived. They were drawn 

 chiefly from an illiterate class in the western states, where so 

 ciety is in its rudest condition. The progress of the Millerites, 

 however, although confined to a fraction of the population, re 

 flects undoubtedly much discredit on the educational and religious 

 training in New England; but since the year 1000, when all 

 Christendom believed that the world was to come to an end, 



