James Parton, Horace Greeley, T. W. Higginson, J. S. C. Abbott, E. M. Hoppin, William Winter, Theodore Tilton, Fanny Fern, Grace Greenwood, Mrs. E. C. Stanton, Women of the age; being natives of the lives and deeds of the most prominent women of the present gentlemen

[315] coasts the rising tide of abolitionism, to which Mrs. Stowe's book had given such an irresistible impulse. Everywhere there was heard the noise of endless splashings, and an infinite confusion, but the tide had its way,--the same tide, which, a few years later, broke over all barriers, swept over the whole country, and washed it clean of its old defilement and curse. “Uncle Tom's cabin” was the honored instrument of that new and noble impulse which was given to public opinion and feeling throughout all Christendom against the infamous slavery system. It was an indirect but most powerful cause of the great political revolution which soon after culminated in the organization of the great anti-slavery party of the country, at whose triumph, slavery, in the recklessness of its wrath, and in the haughtiness of its pride, rose up in rebellion, only to be utterly cast down and destroyed. Mrs. Stowe was violently assailed as the author of an anti-Christian book, and as herself an infidel disorganizer and agitator; and even religious newspapers joined in the assault. True, her gospel brought not peace but a sword, because it was the old Gospel of Jesus Christ! She was an agitator, as are the great winds that blow all abroad, and give us a pure atmosphere to breathe;--as every power is, whether it be of earth or of heaven. But she was an agitator, not like the woman of heathen fable, who flung the apple of discord down into an harmonious company, so wantonly provoking strife; but like that other woman of Christian parable, who took a little leaven and hid it in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened.

Aside from its political influence, “Uncle Tom” was a mighty power in ;he world as a witness for Christ, and was no less a contribution to the cause of Christianity than to the cause of emancipation and to American literature. One peculiarity of it is, that the inevitable pair of lovers, the history of whose crooked love-courses forms the staple of most novel writing, are hardly to be found in it. It is a picture of social life, in