J. P. C.

These were communicated to his father, with permission to
publish them in the Chronicle of the Church ; and in a subsequent
letter, after speaking of Captain Couthouy in the most aflfectionate
terms, as an intimate friend and parishioner, who, being attached
to the scientific corps of the exploring expedition, had just left for
Norfolk, where he was to embark, he adds, " He will be a regular
correspondent while he is absent ; and I shall feel a peculiar interest
in their progress on his account." The biographer has in his
possession the principal part of the correspondence which passed
between the two friends, not only at tliis time, but during several



1838.] CHRIST CHUIICH. 217

subse(|iioiit years, until deatli dissolved the earthly tie, which had
been so wanuly and nnitnally cherished. And he will feel justified
in availing himself of the privilege of interweaving with liis narra-
tive some portions of this correspondence. And perhaps a more
appropriate place or occasion for transcribing one short extract
cannot be chosen than the present. Writing to his father, Novem-
ber 12, he says, " I have just heard from my near and dear friend
CouTHOUY, attached to the exploring expedition, dated Madeira,
September 16. He writes in good health and spirits. With some
of his messmates, he had performed the service in the state room,
the weather not admitting of prayers on deck, with all the chants
in due form. ' Fox,' says he, ' plays a good flute, and we made
quite a decent choir. I have heard perfurmances often, in a church
we wot of, not much superior. We had a very delightful time ;
and never did I feel more strongly what a bond of fellowship our
incomparable liturgy is, to those familiar with its wholesome and
comfortable words. We ceased to be strangers from the moment
that we discovered, by a sort of free-masonry, that we were children
of the same beloved mother. If such fellowship is a privilege on
shore, what a blessing is it, cut off as we are from the enjoyment
of the ordinary means of grace, to be able thus to take sweet counsel
together, and recall the time when we went forth with the multi-
tude, in the voice of praise and thanksgiving, among such as keep
holy day ! ' "

To this letter he replied, under the date of the "cloisters of
Cripplegate, November 10 ; " and after touching on a variety of
topics, he says, " It gives me the truest pleasure, my dear friend, to
see your religious affections in such warm and vigorous exercise,
and your heart, as ever, in the right place. May it ever be so ;
nor can I doubt that He who hath begun a good vV'ork in you will
continue it unto the end. Your accounts of your Sundays have
especially interested me ; and I rejoice to know that you carry the
Church so closely with you." He here conunences the citation of
one of Keble's beautiful hymns, but immediately adds, " I must not
fill my page with Keble, however more valuable than any thing
which I can write, while you have his inestimable volume at hand,
and can take up the passage where I leave it. In the cherished
fellowship of those common devotions, let us not fail often to meet
each other before the mercy seat, with an affection which distance
cannot impair, time camiot change, nor even antarctic region chilL"

Again, on "All Saints," he writes, "I find myself often fingering
my old globe, to endeavor to identify the spot where you were said
to be floating; and we bring you near in spirit, walking by faith,
and not by sight. I hope you are by this time in full nightly view
of the glorious Southern Cross. May you conquer in that sign.
Where this will reach you is more than I can conjecture ; but it is
28



•218 MEMOIR OF WILLIAM CROSWELL. [1838,

a comfort to know that you will still be, witii us, under the hollow
of that almighty Hand, who is the hope of all the ends of the earth,
and of those that remain in the broad sea."

Two very interesting letters from this highly-valued correspondent
may here be noted ; the one commenced on board tl)e U. S. ship
Vincennes, Sunday, November 11, and finished at Rio de Janeiro,
November 25; and the other dated at the latter place, on Christmas
Eve. These letters are chiefly filled with details of scientific dis-
coveries, and with matters of a private, domestic, or familiar nature ;
but there are a few sketches of religious incidents, which may with
propriety -be transcribed. In his first letter he says, "We had ser-
vice this morning, and a sermon from our Lord's rebuke to Martha,
Luke X. 42. We have only three besides myself to join in the
responses, but we all sit together ; and as I closed my eyes, and
listened to the solemn and comforting language of our Common
Prayer, (it is sweet to think that it is common,) it would not have
been difficult to imagine myself worshipping in our ancient temple,
with the voice of ' mine own familiar friend ' sounding in my ears."
From Rio de .Taneiro, November 25, he says, " To-day, being St.
Cecilia's day, there was a high celebration at the church of her
name, which I attended. The church itself is a fine one, and, on
this occasion, was more than usually imposing in its appearance, &c.
Upon the grand altar, which was resplendent in gold and jewels,
there were seven rows of wax lights arranged pyramidally, and
about one hundred and twenty in number, some of them ten or
twelve feet in height. A large number of priests officiated at high
mass, all in the rich dresses appointed for festivals, which, as usual,
were changed several times during the service. This part of the
ceremony, however, had but little interest for me, having seen it
repeatedly abroad, and because it always has a theatrical aspect.
But the music ! you should have heard that. It was superb. I
thought it fine during mass ; but afl;erwards, the choir performed
the whole of the Messiah. I was completely carried away. I
can only say, that if St. Cecilia could hear such strains, and envy
could enter her celestial abode, she would throw her harp aside.
My enjoyment was considerably marred, however, by the uproar in
front of the church, where they had tar barrels burning, the smoke
of which swept in, defiling with its Cimmerian steam the sanctuary
where clouds of incense were floating up before the altar ! Then
there was a continual roar of musketry, squibs, &c., and, every now
and then, the boom of cannon, sounds of icar and tumult, strangely
blending with the angelic harmony which, within, accompanied the
praises of Him who was the Prince of Peace. And this is Romish
devotion. Surely 'darkness hath covered the earth, and gross dark-
ness the people.'" Again, in his letter of Christmas Eve, he writes,
" Yesterday 1 visited several of the churches a second time. They



1838.] CHRIST CHURCH. 219

have most of tliem a venerable and imposing aspect externally, being
built of a dark gray stone. The interior of one or two is very
chaste and beautiful ; but the greater part are tawdry and tbeatri-
cal. One that j)leased me very much had been pointed out to me
as the Imperial Chapel, but, as I have since ascertained, incorrectly.
I visited the latter yesterday. It is about the size of our church,
the floor laid with rough boards, while the area in front (on enter-
ing which, all uncover their heads) is paved with marble. The
walls are painted white, and gilt abundantly. The roof is supported
by spiral or twisted pillars, the flutings of which are gilt ; and the
whole of the chancel is richly gilt and decorated with paintings in
fresco. Between the pillars are shrines containing images of sev-
eral saints, before which were burning large candles, in massy ten-
branched silver candlesticks. Think of a coarse wooden image of
the Virgin Mary, rigged up in an old dusty and faded green and
crimson silk robe, with silver halo stuck round her head, broad and
flat, like the rim of a Shaker's hat, and dandling a little naked wax
doll in her arms, on which she looks as ferociously as some old
portraits I have seen, gazing at the nosegays in their hands. I have
seen these things before, but never was so struck with them as now.
It is hard to say whether the prevailing feeling is a sense of the
ludicrous or the impious. These are the disagreeable points hi
Roman Catholic churches. To go on with the Imperial Chapel :
The intervals between the pillars are filled by crimson damask
hangings, extending from the roof to the floor, which must have
had a very gorgeous appearance when new, but now remind me
by resemblance of an old curtain in another church far away.
There are two pulpits, one on each side of the chancel, and just
above them are two small niches in the wall, for the imperial fam
ily, much like the stage boxes in a theatre. There are no pews in
any of the churches here, no chance for a comfortable nap during
the sermon. All have to stand where they best can, and kneel on
the bare floor. It has certainly a very devotional eflfect to enter
one, at other than service hours, and see here and there a person
kneeling in jirayer, amid the stillness and ' dim religious light '
pervading the place, with no one but the Hearer of prayer to witness
their worshipping. Another thing, which struck me very forcibly,
was the total disregard of rank or station manifested in these
churches. The rich and poor, the noble born and the poor slave,
meet there on a footing of perfect equality before the common
Father of all, whicli, in our republican country, would not be toler-
ated for a moment. I have seen the field ofllicer, in his gorgeous
uniform, enter and kneel by the side of the half-naked slave, with-
out the one dreaming of changing his position, or the other deeinijig
himself at all entitled to precedence or notice, in the temple of Ilim
in whose sight all flesh is vile. Tiiis is as it should be ; and we



220 MEMOIR OF WILLIAM CIIOSWELL. [1838.

might, in our favored land, well learn from them the lesson it
teaches. I have been much struck with the perfect equality vvliich
exists here between the free blacks and the whites. There are
black doctors, black lawyers, black priests, black jjenerals, and, to
make the resemblance complete, black devils. Midnight has just
struck ; the people outside are firing guns and squibs, and illumi-
nating as we shoidd for the ' glorious fourth.' The two towers of
'Our Lady of the Chandeliers' (Nossa Senhora dos Candelabros)
are hung from top to bottom with thousands of little lamps, which
produce a most beautiful effect. I wish you, my dear friend, a
merry Christmas."

April 39, while on his visit to New Haven, he writes to his friend
CouTHOUY, giving an amusing account of his visit to the halls of
the Yale Natural History Society, and expressing his usual gratifi-
cation amid the scenes of his home. He adds, however, " In sober
earnest, my heart begins to yearn towards the spot where my high-
est duties lie. I long to be with you in those beloved precincts to
which our sweet chimes invite, and around which so many sacred
associations cluster. There the memory and the imagination most
delight to dwell. There may we keep holy day together, my dear
friend, and unite in the pleasant feasts of remembrance. My days
pass delightfully here indeed, but idly and monotonously. Sundays
are indeed an exception, when I do some violence to my feelings by
preaching in the synagogue where I was brought up, and where a
prophet is apt least of all to be had in honor. Still it affords my
father a relief, and others an apparent satisfaction, which make it
contribute indirectly to my own." He concludes with the following
narration : " My stay has been enlivened by the celebration of the
two hujulredth anniversary of the landing of our fathers. The
incense, in its usual quantity, was burnt at the shrine of the pilgrim
saints, more than enough to make St. Patrick or any of the Roman
canonization blush. . . . No Quakers were hung in effigy;
and the orator was in keeping with the stereotyped representations
with which we are so familiar at the east. I should like to have
had him taken a few hints from a certain sermon delivered in our
church by Bishop Griswold, from the text, ' Cause them to know
the abominations of their fathers ; ' in which the old gentleman
exhibited a good deal of the stern spirit of Ezekiel. A younger
brother of mine pencilled down on the margin of the printed stanzas
(to the tune of God save the King) the following terse addition,
which was not performed by the choir : —

' They through their noses sung,
And sundry Quakers hung,
And Baptists too ;



1838.1 CIIKIST CHURCH. 221

They spilled the Indians' hlood,
And, for their poor souls' good,
They drowned them in the flood
Without ado.'

" Judging from the effects of the last two centuries, how many
more centuries may be expected to elapse before tlieir strong marks
upon our character shall be quite obliterated ? "

August 25, in a letter to Rev. Dr. Strong, he says, " At the last
meeting of tiie Board of State Missions, the clerical members were
appointed agents to visit all the parishes in the state, with a view
of awakening a more general interest in its objects, and of ascer-
taining by personal inquiry the prospect of the parishes receiving or
requiring aid. The whole west was assigned to me. ... I
desire, before entering on this field, to confer with the clergy and
leading men of those parts, as to the desirableness or expediency
of such an agency. It appears to me that an agent with such
powers must trench very materially on the prerogatives of the
bishop. . . . Every clergyman should be an agent, each in his
own parish ; and I have been so much in the habit of thinking that
we need no other, that I fear 1 should not enter sufficiently into the
spirit of the work which has been assigned to me. Of this, how-
ever, we can speak when we meet face to face." At a later date,
he says, " I am reluctantly obliged to give up the western expediticm.
Brother Ballard expressed my own opinion when he observed, that
though he should be happy to see me among them, yet he thought
that every clergyman was the best and cheapest agent in his own
parish."

It appears from his letters, that, in the early part of this year,
he promised his friend Chapin, the editor of the Chronicle of the
Church, to furnish him from week to week with a simple, and as
nearly as possible literal, version of the Psalms of David. He
proceeded in this undertaking as far as the eighth Psalm. Partly,
however, on account of the errors of the press, but chiefly from
other causes, he abandoned the plan, remarking, in a letter to his
father, "I have no doubt that I should be more at home in a metri-
cal arrangement. I may try some day, just for my own solace.
But I shall not print any thing of that kind ; nor do I aspire to get
up any thing to be used in churches, lest I should bring myself
under the scourge of the epigram ; —

' Sternhold gave pious people qualms,
When he translated David's Psalms :
But how much worse, alas ! our fate,
To hear them sing what you translate ! ' "



222 MEMOni OF WIIJJAM CROSWELL. [1838.

Again, he writes, "I liave almost made up my mind to the pre-
sumptuous and daring attempt, in which so many of the best have
failed, of giving* a close and simple version of the Psalms in metre.
[ shall not, however, do so with any idea of publishing at present,
but chiefly to imbue my own mind with more of the spirit of the
inspired Psalmist. I am surprised, ou examination of the English
translati(ms, to find them so bald on the one hand, and so loose and
parajiln-astic on the othef." How far this purpose was carried out
is not known. A few specimens only are to be found, either in
print or in manuscript, and these will be introduced into this work.

The following communication, which he sent for publication in
the Chronicle of July 20, is a just, though severe criticism on a
new " Red-Letter Edition of the Prayer Book," which had then
but just appeared. It is here transcribed entire, with an original
inscription appended as a note : —

" From the long advertisement in your paper, I was led, per-
haps, to form too high expectations with regard to the edition of
the Book of Common Prayer with the red rubrics. Certain it is
that I have been greatly disappointed. The enterprise, as first
announced, was much to my taste, as I had long been of the mind
of Chaucer's ' Clerk of Oxenford,' ' who had rather have at his
bed's hedde twenty bookes in black and red, than robes rich, fiddle, or
salterie.' I have seen manuscript missals, ' on rich creamy vellum,'
more than four hundred years old, whose gorgeous vermilion dyes,
and glossy raven black, were fresh and bright as if they were exe-
cuted but yesterday. Volumes of rare beauty are now around me,
printed before the time of the Reformation, whose unfaded red letter
puts to shame the blurred and diluted tints of this boasted ' topo-
graphical novelty.'* It is impossible, indeed, for the slender Italian
letter to produce the same eft'ect with the broad surface of the
beautiful old English type ; and in this respect, as well as in those
of paper, ink, and arrangement, our modern publishers might take
lessons of the first fathers of the art. ... If Knight's splen-
did pictorial Prayer Book, now in the course of publication in



* On tlie leaf of an old Hebrew Bible, executed in much the same style, is
the following inscription : —

Open now the Hebrew page,

Sleek and glossy spite of age ;

Unsophisticated text,

By no Masorite perplext ;

"Where each character you see

In its stern simplicity,

Upright, racy, square, and bold,

Symbol of the truth they hold.

As the eye delights to track,

RoAv by roAv, the letters black,

Say, is not each martial line

"Worthy of the "Word divine ? W. C.



1838.1 CHRIST CHURCH. 223

Englaiifl, were but printed in black letter, with tlie rubrics blushing
out between, and bound in embroidered velvet, with silver clasps
and corners, and sets of many-colored ribbons, it would be indeed
a jewel of a book. My disappointment with regard to the American
volume is iKJt, of course, because it does not realize this hrau ideal,
but because it entirely fails in the great purpose for which it was
intended, viz., to insure the rubrics hciiig well red ! In their present
faint, dim, and watery lineaments, 'they lead to bewilder, glimmer
to betray.' I hope that this error will be corrected in the next
edition, that a better color will be put upon the rubrics, and that
they will yet shine out

' In goodly verniil stain,

Like crimson dyed in grain.' "

It is pleasant to record the following acknowledgment, which is
found in a letter to his father, November 27 : " The Rev, Mr. Price
sent me a token of his brotherly regard, last week, which I have
great reason to value on every account, being a small leather case,
containing a miniature communion service of silver, manufactured
in England, for administering the Lord's supper to the sick. If
they have any fault, they are a little too much in petto, and might
be mistaken by the profane for playthings. Accompanying this was
a copy of the new quarto edition of the Miles Coverdale Bible,
(1535,) just published in England, and intended to be a fac simile
of the original, page for page, &c. To the theological antiquarian
it is almost inestimable."

The following anecdote of the elder John Adams, noted in his
journal, may be original. It was related to him by^ Major Russell.
When the bust of Mr. Adams was put up in Faneuil Hall, the old
gentleman pronounced it a very good likeness, but thought it rather
ugly. He contra.sted his own face with that of Washington, and
ttbserved that Washington had one feature to which he owed his
ascendency : "Mouth shut close — mine always open."

Early in December, having made a short visit to New Haven, he
writes from New York, while on his return home, giving a minute
account of a private musical entertainment, at which Dr. Hodges
presided, and during which a considerable part of the English
cathedral service was performed. Dr. Wainwright officiating as
clergyman. Of this performance he says, " It quite transported me
for the time to the ' high-embowered roof,' and the rest of the scene
described by Mihon. The music alone would have been worth the
journey, and I feel as if I had been very much favored in being
here at the time." He adds the following : " Dr. Hodges told a



224 MEMOIR OF WILLIAM CROS^YELL. [1838.

good story of Adam Clark, that, after preaching on some famous
charity occasion, for which very great musical preparations had
been made, he closed by observing, « The elders of the congregation
will now please to pass about the plate, while our friends in the gal-
lery will AMUSE THEMSELVES by singing an anthem!^"

On the following day, having arrived at Boston, he duly acknowl-
edges " the hand of God's good providence, by which he had been
safely led, on his going out and coming in."

Writing again on the 17th of December, he says, " I found, on
attempting the services yesterday, that I had a little cold ; but it did
not prevent me from preaching three times, attending Sunday school
examination, and baptizing a child, besides drilling my choir in their
Christmas music. Every thing looks well about the old church, and
a good spirit prevails. Nothing could be pleas^nter than the sweet,
rich chime of its morning bells. . . . Our singing is getting
to be a very model of simplicity and good taste. We attempt
nothing but what is familiar as household words, and the whole
church grows vocal as with the song of birds. On Christmas, we
shall not allow our friends in the gcdlery to amuse themselves with a
single anthem^

He did not write again till Friday of the following week, Decem-
ber 2S, and the reason is thus given : " The fact that we had no
Monday this week, [Christmas fell on Monday,] though it did not
affect my sensibilities as to the duty of writing, did greatly interfere
with the power of carrying the duty into execution. I believe I
wrote you last on Monday week, and gave you a good account of
my health and performances. I could not have written as much
the next day, if indeed I could have written at all. The latent
seeds of a cold, probably contracted by the fatigue and exposure of
my journey, broke out on Monday night into most abundant fruit,
and 1 was scarcely able to keep about for a day or two." He
recruited, however, and adds, " I was able to get ready for the
confirmation. On Sunday I baptized five adults and five children,
officiated all day, and presented thirteen candidates for confirmation
at evening. The services awakened great interest, and the tone of
religious feeling which pervades the parish is very encouraging."
The next day, being Christmas, "was," he says, "a glorious day,
and every body seemed to enjoy it greatly. All our churches were
crowded, our own particularly."

The record of the present year closes as it opened, in the same
devout and humble spirit. Dating on the last of December, he says,
" Annus Domini 1838 takes his leave of us with great serenity.
The review of the past, of course, is calculated to give rise
to mingled feelings, in which shame, and .pain, and mortification
have their share. Still I am not sure that the last has not been one
of the happiest years of my life, inasmuch as my quiet and contern-



1830.] CHRIST CHURCH. 225

plative habits have been less disturbed, the nature of the interior Ufe
bas been more developed to my mind, and some little progress, I
trust, by the divine grace, made on the way to the lieavenly Zion.
By the same grace, I hope to be able to give a better account of
myself, both in temporals and spirituals, should my life be spared
yet another year."

He does not conclude, however, without indulging in a little
stroke of pleasantry. Among his Christmas and New Year's
presents, he had received from a fair friend a magnificent bronze
standish, " which," he says, " from its constant use, cannot fail to
keep her pleasant remembrance before me. I wish I could hope
that my sermons might be any the better for it ; but it is too true,
as Swift says, —

' That not the desk of silver nails.
Nor bureau of expense.
Nor standish well japanned, avails
To writing of good sense.' "



1839.



There are but few incidents to distinguish this from the preced-
ing year. He was seldom absent from his parish, and day after
day brought the same monotonous call for labor. From the extent
and variety of his occupations, he was allowed but few hours for
repose ; and even these hours, as appears from his journal, were
often disturbed by severe headache and nervous restlessness. He