from Boston, leaving out all her Cambridge acquaintances, who, in
consequence, were much offended, and ceased to make their usual calls. A
sister of his, Dr. Hedge said, was the only one of those ladies who
continued to visit her.

He saw Margaret for the last time in Rome, and found her much changed
and subdued. She was laboring at the time under one of those severe fits
of depression to which her letters from Rome bear witness. The
conversation between the two friends was long and intimate. Margaret
spoke of the terrible night which she had passed alone upon a mountain
in Scotland. Dr. Hedge more than once said to me, "Margaret experienced
religion during that night."

When, in process of time, the New England Women's Club celebrated what
would have been Margaret's sixtieth birthday, Dr. Hedge joined with
James Freeman Clarke in loving and reverent testimony to her unusual
talents and noble character.

I had the pleasure of twice hearing Dr. Hedge's admirable essay on
"Luther," which he first delivered at Arlington Street Church, and
repeated, some years later, before the Town and Country Club of Newport,
R. I. But my crowning recollection of him, and perhaps of the crowning
performance of his life, is of that memorable evening of anniversary
week in the year 1886, when he made his exhaustive and splendid
statement of the substance of the Unitarian faith. The occasion was a
happy one. The Music Hall was filled with the great Unitarian audience
furnished by Boston and its vicinity. George William Curtis was the
president of the evening, and introduced the several speakers with his
accustomed grace. He made some little pun on Dr. Hedge's name, and the
noble speaker quietly stepped forward, with the fire of unquenchable
youth in his eyes, with the balance and reserve of power in every word,
in every gesture. No note nor scrap of paper did he hold in his hand.
None did he need, for he spoke of that upon which his whole life had
been founded and built. Every one of his sentences was like a stone,
fitly squared and perfectly laid. And so he built up before us, with
crystal clearness, the beautiful fabric of our faith, lifting us, as it
rose, to a region of the highest peace and contentment. Oh, the joy of
it! My heart rests upon it still.

[Illustration: FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE

_From a photograph lent by his daughter, Charlotte A. Hedge._]

It is well known that Dr. Hedge received the most important part of his
educat