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Chapter 8: first years in Boston
In the autumn of 1844 we returned from our wedding journey, and took up our abode in the near neighborhood of the city of
Boston, of which at intervals I had already enjoyed some glimpses.
These had shown me
Margaret Fuller, holding high communion with her friends in her wellremembered conversations;
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was then breaking ground in the field of his subsequent great reputation; and many another who has since been widely heard of. I count it as one of my privileges to have listened to a single sermon from
Dr. Channing, with whom I had some personal acquaintance.
I can remember only a few passages.
Its theme must have been the divine love; for
Dr. Channing said that God loved black men as well as white men, poor men as well as rich men, and bad men as well as good men. This doctrine was quite new to me, but I received it gladly.
The time was one in which the
Boston community, small as it then was, exhibited great differences of opinion, especially regarding the new