John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[42] I have encountered much opposition and ridicule on account of what I have published and the little I have written in favor of association, and have shocked the prejudices of many worthy friends, some of whom have stopped my paper on account of this, and all been chilled in their friendship by my unyielding fanaticism. All this is nothing: but the failure of your experiment would be something. My world would have a darker sky than now. Understand, then, my friend, that I would not have you change anything which works well with you (for I am an ingrain conservative as well as radical), but should circumstances of discouragement ever arise, I would have you prepared to meet and overcome them, readily and signally. Do not let anything daunt you, much less destroy. I hear awful predictions of your overthrow, at which I trust you smile, but which to a distant friend may well cause some little anxiety. I hope I shall yet live to see the infidels confounded-no, converted. Do you ever read that quaint, devout old record by Ezra of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem?

I am lecturing you too freely. Enough.

But this wise and pathetic letter, although it points out weaknesses in the association which must have destroyed it ultimately, even if the original insufficiency of capital had not proved to be fatal, it did not, so far as can now be discovered, discourage those who had practical charge of the management. Dana, in whom we are principally interested, went sturdily about his daily task. When scholars began to come to the institute, he taught, and taught well, whether the lessons were in Greek, German, or Spanish. When he had no scholars, he worked on the farm at whatever came handiest, but seems to have preferred feeding and milking the cows and looking after the dairy. When neither of these departments claimed his attention, he wrote for the Dial, and afterwards for the Harbinger, or delivered lectures and talks wherever he had an audience. He was cheery and alert in his tasks. In