ror. He delivered
his first course of lectures in the old Stuyvesant Institute in
Broadway, facing Bond Street--the same hall used a little afterwards
by the Unitarian Society while they were building a church for Mr.
Dewey in Broadway opposite Eighth Street, the very same society now
established in Lexington Avenue, with Mr. Collyer as minister. The
subsequent courses were delivered in Clinton Hall, corner of Nassau
and Beekman, the site now occupied by one of our modern mammoth
buildings. I forget how much we were charged admission, except that a
ticket for the whole course cost three dollars. There was no great
rush, but the lectures drew well and abundantly paid all expenses
including the lecturer's fee. The press did not take much notice of
the lectures, for the Workingman's party had no newspapers expressly
in its favor, except the one I have already quoted from. But he was
one of the few men whose power is great enough to advertise itself.
Wherever he was he was felt. His tread was heavy and he could make
way for himself.

"Dr. Brownson was then in the very prime of manhood. He was a
handsome man, tall, stately, and of grave manners. His face was
clean-shaved. The first likeness of him that I remember appeared in
the _Democratic Review._ It made him look like Proudhon, the French
Socialist. This was all the more singular because at that time he was
really the American Proudhon, though he never went so far as _'La
propriete, c'est le vol.'_ As he appeared on the platform and
received our greeting he was indeed a majestic man, displaying in his
demeanor the power of a mind altogether above the ordinary. But he
was essentially a philosopher, and that means that he could never be
what is called popular. He was an interesting speaker, but he never
sought popularity. He never seemed to care much about the reception
his words received, but he exhibited anxiety to get his thoughts
rightly expressed and to leave no doubt about what his convictions
were. Yet among a limited class of minds he always awakened real
enthusiasm--among minds, that is, of a philosophical tendency. He
never used manuscript or notes; he was familiar with his topic, and
his thoughts flowed out spontaneously in good, pure, strong, forcible
English. He could control any reasonable mind, for he was a man of
great thoughts and never without some grand truth to impart. But to
stir the emotions was not in his power, though he sometimes attempted
it; he