the other
of every question. I suppose this appears in my course, such as it has
been, in religion, in politics, on the subject of slavery, of peace, of
temperance, etc. It may appear to be dulness or tameness or time-serving
or cowardice [107] or folly, but I simply do not believe it to be
either.

But to return: we were now once more in Sheffield, and I was without
employment,--a condition always most irksome to me. Hard work, I am
persuaded, is the highest pleasure in the world, and, from the day when
I was in college, vacations have always proved to me the most tedious
times in my life.

I determined, therefore, to pursue some study as far as I could, and my
subject,--the choice of years before,--was the philosophy of history and
humanity. While thus engaged, I received an invitation from Mr. John A.
Lowell, trustee of the Lowell Institute, to deliver one of its annual
popular courses of lectures in Boston. This immediately gave a direction
to my thoughts, and by the winter of 1850-51 I was prepared to write the
lectures, which I ventured to denominate, "Lectures on the Problem of
Human Destiny," and I gave them in the autumn of 1851. My reason for
adopting such a title I gave in the first lecture, and I might add that,
with my qualifications, I was ashamed to put at the head of my humble
work such great words as "Philosophy of History and Humanity,"--the
title of Herder's celebrated treatise. The truth was, I had, or
thought I had, something to say upon the philosophy of the human
condition,--upon the end for man, and upon the only way in which
it could be [108] achieved,--upon the terrible problem of sin and
suffering in this world,--and I tried to say it. I so far succeeded
with my audience in Boston, that, either from report of that, or from
the intrinsic interest of the subject, I was invited to repeat the
lectures in various parts of the country; and during the four or five
years following I repeated them fifteen times,--in New Bedford, New
York, Brooklyn, Washington, Baltimore, St. Louis, Louisville, Madison,
Cincinnati, Nashville, Sheffield, Worcester, Charleston, S. C., New
Orleans, and Savannah in part, and the second time also, I gave them, by
Mr. Lowell's request, in the Boston Institute. At the same time, I was
not idle as a preacher, having preached every Sunday in the places where
I lectured, besides serving the church in Washington two long winters.
I also wrote another course of lectures for the L