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the money which I had expended in the hire of halls was returned to me. I had not in any way suggested or expected this, but as I was working entirely at my own cost the assistance was very welcome and opportune.
I cannot leave this time without recalling the gracious figure of Athanase Coquerel.
I had met this remarkable man in London at the anniversary banquet of the British Unitarian Association.
It was in this country, however, that I first heard his eloquent and convincing speech, the occasion being a sermon given by him at the Unitarian Church of Newport, R. I., in the summer of the year 1873.
It happened on this Sunday that the poet Bryant, John Dwight, and Parke Godwin were seated near me. All of them expressed great admiration of the discourse, and one exclaimed, ‘That French art, how wonderful it is!’
The text chosen was this: ‘And greater works than these shall ye do.’
‘How could this be?’
asked the preacher.
‘How could the work of the disciples be greater than that of the Master?
In one sense only.
It could not be greater in spirit or in character.
It could be greater in extent.’
The revolution in France occasioned by the Franco-Prussian war was much in the public mind at this time, and the extraordinary crisis of the Commune was almost unexplained.
As soon
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