CHAP. XXV.] CHURCHES. 73 



ed, through forests recently abandoned by the Indians, and where 

 their paths may still be traced, I found that my wife had made 

 many agreeable acquaintances at Tuscaloosa. Two of the ladies 

 she had seen (New Englanders, who had married southerners) 

 were reading the works of Schiller and Goethe in the original for 

 their amusement. My companion, the Professor of Chemistry, 

 was not the only one from whom I obtained much scientific in 

 formation, and we enjoyed the pleasure, one clear night, of look 

 ing through a telescope recently sent from London, and were 

 shown by Mr. Barnard, the teacher of astronomy, some double 

 stars and southern constellations not visible in England. 



The annual expense of a student in the University is 3 dol 

 lars, or sixty guineas a year, including board. A gentleman, 

 whose family consisted of eight individuals, with eight negro serv 

 ants, told me that he could, not live respectably for less than 1700 

 dollars a year (340 guineas.) Yet he paid no less than 40 dol 

 lars, or eight guineas, a year, for a pew in the Presbyterian 

 church, holding six persons, which will give some idea of the lib 

 eral support afforded, under the- voluntary system, to the minis 

 ters of religion. Among the professors here, there are Baptists, 

 Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and I was told of one that he was 

 not a member of any church, but a regular attendant at the Bap 

 tist or Presbyterian meeting. On Sunday, we heard the Bishop 

 of Alabama preach, the congregation here being reckoned the 

 second in the state. The first is at Mobile, and there are about 

 ten in all. The service was read by another clergymen, and as, 

 according to the usual custom in America, there was no clerk, 

 the Bishop read the responses and gave out the psalms, seeming 

 to us, at first, to be performing the office of clerk. It often struck 

 me as an advantage in the United States, that the responses are 

 never read by an illiterate man, as happens not uncommonly in 

 our country parishes, and the congregation joins in the service 

 more earnestly when the part which properly belongs to them 

 does not devolve on a regular functionary. A few days later, 

 when I was on my way, in a steamer, to Mobile, I conversed 

 with an Episcopal clergyman, a high churchman, whose profes 

 sion I had recognized by the strictness of his costume. He told 



VOL. II. D 



