lways distinguished for a tendency to exaggeration,--it might almost be
qualified by a stronger term. _Fortiter mentire, aliquid haeret_, seemed to
be his favourite rule of rhetorick. That he is actually where he says he
is the post-mark would seem to confirm; that he was received with the
publick demonstrations he describes would appear consonant with what we
know of the habits of those regions; but further than this I venture not
to decide. I have sometimes suspected a vein of humour in him which leads
him to speak by contraries; but since, in the unrestrained intercourse of
private life, I have never observed in him any striking powers of
invention, I am the more willing to put a certain qualified faith in the
incidents and the details of life and manners which give to his narratives
some of the interest and entertainment which characterize a Century
Sermon.

It may be expected of me that I should say something to justify myself
with the world for a seeming inconsistency with my well-known principles
in allowing my youngest son to raise a company for the war, a fact known
to all through the medium of the publick prints. I did reason with the
young man, but _expellas naturam furca, tamenusque recurrit_. Having
myself been a chaplain in 1812, I could the less wonder that a man of war
had sprung from my loins. It was, indeed, grievous to send my Benjamin,
the child of my old age; but after the discomfiture of Manassas, I with my
own hands did buckle on his armour, trusting in the great Comforter for
strength according to my need. For truly the memory of a brave son dead in
his shroud were a greater staff of my declining years than a coward,
though his days might be long in the land and he should get much goods. It
is not till our earthen vessels are broken that we find and truly possess
the treasure that was laid up in them. _Migravi in animam meam_, I have
sought refuge in my own soul; nor would I be shamed by the heathen
comedian with his _Nequam illud verbum, bene vult, nisi bene facit_.
During our dark days, I read constantly in the inspired book of Job, which
I believe to contain more food to maintain the fibre of the soul for right
living and high thinking than all pagan literature together, though I
would by no means vilipend the study of the classicks. There I read that
Job said in his despair, even as the fool saith in his heart there is no
God,--"The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are