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[340] he would have met with the same friendly reception, and would probably have been accosted something after this fashion: ‘How art thou, friend Albert? They tell me thou art amiable and kindly disposed toward the people; and I am glad to see thee.’ Those who observe the parting advice given by Isaac's mother, when he went to serve his apprenticeship in Philadelphia, will easily infer that this peculiarity was hereditary. Some men, who rise above their original position, either in character or fortune, endeavor to conceal their early history. Others obtrude it upon all occasions, in order to magnify themselves by a contrast between what they have been and what they are. But he did neither the one nor the other. The subject did not occupy his thoughts. He spoke of having been a tailor, whenever it came naturally in his way, but never for the sake of doing so. His having been born in a hen-house was a mere external accident in his eyes; and in the same light he regarded the fact that Victoria was born in a palace. What was the spiritual condition of the two at any given age, was the only thing that seemed to him of real importance.

His steadfastness in maintaining moral principles, ‘however unpopular those principles might be,’ was severely tried in the autumn of 1838. At a late hour in the night, two colored men came to his house,

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