Jula Ward Howe, Reminiscences: 1819-1899

[306] some trepidation, my course of parlor lectures We were residing, at this time, in the house in Chestnut Street which was afterwards made famous by the sittings of the Radical Club. The parlors were very roomy, and were well filled by those who came to hear me. Among them was my neighbor, Rev. Dr. Lothrop, who, in speaking of these occasions at a later day, once said, ‘I think that they were the best meetings that I ever knew. The conversation that followed the readings was started on a high plane.’ This conversation was only informal talk among those who had been listeners. My topics, so far as I can recall them, were as follows: ‘How not to teach Ethics;’ ‘Doubt and Belief, the Two Feet of the Mind;’ ‘Moral Triangulation, or the Third Party;’ ‘Duality of Character;’ ‘The Fact Accomplished.’ My audience consisted largely of my society friends, but was by no means limited to them. The elder Agassiz, Dr. Lothrop, E. P Whipple, James Freeman Clarke, and William R. Alger attended all my readings. After the first one, Mr. Clarke said to me, ‘You have touched too many chords.’ After hearing my thesis on ‘Duality of Character,’ he took my hand in his, and said, ‘Oh! you sweet soul!’

Mr. Emerson was not among my hearers, but expressed some interest in my undertaking, and especially in my lecture on ‘The Third Party.’