and hill, came the acorn, the oak whereof is now strong and vigorous,--we trust with healing in its leaves. The little boy entering that corn-barn to get fodder for his father's horse, cows, and oxen,--is that the same whose stalwart form first rose before us in the School Street pulpit forty years ago; whose eloquent tongue set the blood thrilling in our youthful veins; whose majestic bearing seemed to us--what it was--that of an Apostle? "It has been our good fortune to look upon the Forum where Cicero declaimed in orations that yet thrill; to traverse the Colosseum where Trajan had a private box; to walk the streets of Pompeii whose pavements were trodden by resident Greeks and strangers centuries before the advent of Jesus. "But there is an ample niche in our memory left. We place therein, to recall reverently, gratefully, and with weird association, our visit, on the morning of August 20, 1882, to the birthplace of Hosea Ballou, Richmond, N. H., 'twelve miles from Keene, due south.' The town of hill, vale, and forest is largely deserted by man. Farms that once waved with corn are now covered with forests of pine. The locomotive has never been seen--hardly heard--within its borders. But its history is precious. For what it was, for what it bequeathed, it shall live in history and in song." [49] "Our Woman Workers," p. 353. [50] The first Universalist woman who appeared in the pulpit as a preacher of the Gospel was Miss Maria Cook, who preached before the Western Association in Bainbridge, N. Y., in June, 1811. She is spoken of by Rev. Stephen R. Smith, in his "Historical Sketches" (Vol. I. pp. 31, 32). Notwithstanding the good impressions made by her as a speaker, there were those who deemed "so extraordinary an undertaking as an evidence of mental alienation!" A more enlightened and candid judgment in reference to this subject has since prevailed. [51] Rev. Thomas G. Farnsworth of Waltham, Mass., ordained in 1822, and Rev. Alvin Dinsmore of Woodland, Cal., ordained in 1823. [52] "Argument on the Right and Duty of Prohibition." By A. A. Miner, April 2, 1867. [53] Boston Transcript of May 1, 1882. [54] Rev. G. H. Emerson, D. D., Ed. in "Christian Leader." [55] Rev. J. W. Hanson, D. D. CHAPTER XX. EDUCATIONAL AIDS.