to each at every feast.

Their home was the castle of safety for runaway slaves, and the
paradise of the unfortunate. All knew that if the mistress met them
empty handed, she would cheer their lonely hearts with kind words,
recognizing their humanity, and with sure promise of some future
consideration. Her house was a resort too for people of distinction.
When Frederika Bremer, Harriet Martineau, Lord Morpeth, Lord and Lady
Amberley, visited this country, the reformers were the people they
desired to see, and chief among them Lucretia Mott, after whom Lady
Amberley named her first daughter. Thus titled foreigners, scholars,
and politicians often met at her fireside. I have frequently heard
Gerrit Smith describe a call he once made there. In a conversation of
an hour, she was interrupted half a dozen times with applications for
charity. At last, in came the glorious Fanny Kemble, meeting Mrs. Mott
in a manner that clearly showed they were warm and well-known friends;
and soon came Frederick Douglass. There sat the millionaire
philanthropist, the world-renowned actor, the grandest representative
of slavery, and the fearless disciple of Elias Hicks. I doubt if the
Quaker City ever unveiled so magnificent a tableaux for the pen of an
artist.

In her diary Mrs. Mott says: "At twenty-five years of age, surrounded
with a family and many cares, I felt called to a more public life of
devotion to duty, and engaged in the ministry in the 'Society of
Friends,' receiving every encouragement from those in authority until
the separation amongst us in 1827, when my convictions led me to
adhere to those who believed in the sufficiency of the light within,
resting on 'truth for authority rather than authority for truth.' The
popular doctrine of original sin never commended itself to my reason
or conscience, except on the theory of original holiness also. I
searched the Scriptures daily, ofttimes finding a construction of the
text wholly different from that which had been pressed on our
acceptance. The highest evidence of a sound faith being the practical
life of the Christian, I have felt a far greater interest in the moral
movements of the age than in any theological discussion."

In 1818 she began to preach in "Friends' Meeting," and through New
England, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, she spoke at an early
day on the tenets of her sect. She affiliated with the branch called
"Hicksite," or "Unitarian Quakers." As Mrs. Mott was