e me was a matter of
serious and frequent thought. While walking on Broadway one dark night
it seemed as though a voice spoke to him in a clear and distinct manner:
'Call him Peter!' That seeming voice settled my name. My father said
that he felt that I was to be of great good in some way; and his
remarks, with my mother's, concerning their aspirations and hopes for me
acted as a stimulus and made me anxious to fulfill their wishes, and not
disappoint them."

If names were to be characteristic of individual careers, it might be
better to imitate some Indian tribes, and to give the permanent name
only after the career, or at least the character, of its recipient had
been indicated by his acts. In this instance the subsequent life of the
son did not in any peculiar way imitate that of the Apostle Peter.
Evidently not that particular name, but the simple fact that an eminent
name, thus suggested and not already familiar in his family, had been
given to him, produced upon his mind the effect to which he testifies.

But why should practical John Cooper be disposed to anticipate a special
distinction for the infant who was the fifth of his numerous progeny?
From the standpoint of the modes of thought of the godly patriots of
that generation, and of their ancestors, the English Puritans and the
Scotch Covenanters, it is scarcely hazardous to assume that current
public affairs largely affected such domestic choices. Peter Cooper's
birth was practically simultaneous with the launching of that Ship of
State, the "Union, strong and great," in which all patriots had embarked
"their hopes, triumphant o'er their fears." To his veteran-soldier
father he was the first child of the new era; and the dreams that were
dreamed over him were doubtless connected with that glorious future
which had just dawned upon the federated republic. The choice of an
unfamiliar, non-hereditary name, however suggested, symbolized the break
between the old time and the new.

Above all, this incident produced in the son thus christened the
profoundest effects, the deepest motives, that can inspire a boyish
soul,--the belief in a beneficent mission, the yearning to discover it,
the resolve to execute it, and the conviction that it was to be directly
connected with the prosperity and progress of the great nation, the life
of which began with his own.

The naming of Peter Cooper thus strikes the keynote, or, more
accurately, the triple chord, of his life. F