other good and great men our student preacher
was deeply indebted. To Dr. Hosea Ballou (2d) for friendship and wise
counsel. To Dr. James Walker for the inspiration of certain notable
lectures on Natural Theology. Most of all to Dr. E. A. Chapin, his
father's successor in the Universalist Pulpit at Charlestown, Mass. Dr.
Chapin--but ten years King's senior--was then just beginning his
eminent career as pulpit orator and popular lecturer. He recognized
the undeveloped genius of his young friend, he knew of his earnest
student-ship, he delighted to open the doors of opportunity to him.
It was a gracious and honorable relation and most advantageous to the
younger man. Writing to a good Deacon of a neighboring church Chapin
said: "Thomas has never attended a Divinity School, but he is educated
just the same. He speaks Greek, Hebrew, French, German, and fairly good
English as you will see. He knows natural history and he knows humanity,
and if one knows man and nature, he comes pretty close to knowing God."

In 1846 Chapin was called to New York, and through his influence Starr
King, then twenty-two years old, was installed as his successor in
the pastorate of the First Universalist Church of Charlestown. If his
preparedness for an important New England pulpit is questioned it must
be admitted that he entered it wholly without academic training, but we
need not be distressed on that account. From the first he had adopted
a method of study certain to produce excellent results, thorough
acquaintance with a few great authors, and reverent, loving intercourse
with a few great teachers. Little wonder that the "boy preacher" made
good in the pulpit from which his honored Father had passed into, the
Silence, and wherein the eloquence of Chapin had charmed a congregation
of devoted followers.

Two years pass and he is called to Hollis Street Church in Boston,
a Unitarian Church of honorable fame but at the time threatened with
disaster. It was believed that if any one could save the imperilled
church, King was that man. Not yet twenty-five years of age, established
as minister of one of Boston's well known churches; a co-laborer
of Bartol, Ballou, Everett, Emerson, Theodore Parker and Wendell
Phillips,--surely he is to be tried and tested as few men so young have
ever been, here in the "Athens of America," the city of beautiful ideals
and great men.

It is certain that King regarded the eleven years he gave to Hollis
Street as me