of human kindness. N.B. Most of the larger sects in this country have their missionaries, or, as they are also called here, “ministers at large,” whom they send forth to preach the word, establish schools or perform works of mercy, and who are maintained by the community to which they belong, and whose influence they thus extend.
I have during my stay in Boston visited different churches, and it has so happened that the greatest number of them have belonged to the Unitarian body. So great indeed is the predominance of this sect in Boston, that it is generally called “the Unitarian city.” And as it has also happened that many of my most intimate acquaintances here are of this faith, it has been believed by many that I also am of it. You know how far I am otherwise, and how insufficient and how unsatisfying to my mind were those religious views which I held during a few months of my life—and which I abandoned for others more comprehensive. Here in this country however it is more consistent with my feelings not to follow my own sympathies, but to make myself acquainted with every important phase of feeling or intellect in its fullest individuality. I therefore endeavour to see and to study in every place that which is its characteristic. Hence I shall in America visit the churches of every sect, and hear if possible the most remarkable teachers of all. The differences of these, however important they may be for the speculative understanding of the entire system of life, are of much less importance to practical Christianity and to the inward life. And therefore in reality they trouble me but very little. All Christian sects acknowledge, after all, the same God; the same divine mediator and teacher; the same duty; the same love; the same eternal hope. The various churches are various families, who having gone forth from the same father are advancing towards eternal mansions in the
