worship he mainly fell into the practical spirit of the occasion both from inclination and a sense of duty.

In March, 1843, he wrote of this in the Diary :

"I have this day been debarred by my disease from the privilege of attendance upon public worship, and felt it with deep mortification. The importance of regular attendance upon the duties of the Christian Sabbath in social communion has impressed itself more deeply upon my mind in proportion as I have advanced in years. I had neglected to become a member of the Church till after the decease of my father, another omission which I regret. I have at all times been a sincere believer in the existence of a Supreme Creator of the world, of an immortal principle within myself, responsible to that Creator for my conduct upon earth, and of the divine mission of the crucified Savior, proclaiming immortal life and preaching peace on earth, good-will to men, the natural equality of all mankind and the law, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' . . I feel myself to be a frequent sinner before God, and need to be often admonished of it, and exhorted to virtue. This is administered in all the forms of Christian worship, and I am sure of receiving it with whatever denomination of Christian worshipers I associate to obtain it. Of late years I have deemed it my duty to attend the weekly morning performances of the chaplains of Congress in the hall of the House of Representatives, and I hold pews at St. John's Episcopal Church, and at the Second Presbyterian Church, at which I attend alternately when Congress is not in session, and in the afternoon when it is. This forms a regular portion of my habits of life, and I can not feel the privation of it without painful sensibility."

Mr. Adams seemed to be bitterly opposed to all creeds, and said he hated some of the leading features of Calvinism. But in his opposition to creeds, he was, like most men who take the same position, not very consistent, as it was an uncompromising creed with him to oppose an argument or obstacle of some kind. to every item in some creeds; notably, as did his father, to the Athanasian. He was less profound, if

such a word could be at all applied to either of them, than his father in theological matters. Although he read the Bible so many times through, and often with the Commentary of Adam Clarke, the Methodist, as well as other aids, by his side; and read considerably among works distinctly theological in character, he was really quick and unreliable in his conclusions, and without much depth or strength on these matters.

But he was decidedly pious in his inclinations, and was as outspoken in his general religious sentiments and practices as he was in his private aversion to things interdicted to his own creed. He said he had tried hard to understand the doctrine of the Trinity, as ordinarily taught, but could not. He was anxious about this, as he thought there were passages of Scripture which apparently meant that. He believed in Christ's divine mission, teachings, and mediatorial powers, but was unable or unwilling to see that He was the Alpha and the Omega, God Himself. The passages of Scripture which show this fact, the whole story of the Book pointing to it, he did not value, or chose to overlook. Yet Mr. Adams was by no means. one of those ready to put down as false the things which did not yield to the explanation he was able to put upon them, and which might reasonably be assumed as being beyond the reach of the ordinary means in the hands of men. His scientific learning only served to brighten further his way to the heavens. He was simple-minded, and without a scheme. He sought no palliation for his own faults; and was too wise, just, and good to try to escape by some selfdeluded, easy, and treacherous way.

Although he had united with the Congregational

(now Unitarian) Church at Quincy in 1826, he considered it his duty to avoid no proper demand laid upon him by other denominations. As late as the fall of

1844, he attended the " Sabbath Day Convention" held at Baltimore, as a delegate from the Presbyterian Church in Washington, in which he had a pew; and was chosen president of the convention, acting in that capacity until time for him to return to be present at the opening of Congress.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

A PRIEST OF APOLLO-THE SCHOLAR, WRITER, AND POET.

N Edward Everett's Eulogy at Faneuil Hall, April 15, 1848, on the life and character of Mr. Adams, are found these words:

"Mr. Adams was a man of the rarest intellectual endowments. His perception was singularly accurate and penetrating. Whenever he undertook to investigate a subject, he was sure to attain the clearest ideas of it which its nature admitted. What he knew, he knew with great precision. His argumentative powers were of the highest order, and admirably trained. When he entered the field of controversy, it was a strong and a bold man that voluntarily encountered him a second time. His memory was wonderful. Everything he had seen or read, every occurrence in his long and crowded life, was at all times present to his recollection. This was the more remarkable, as he had, almost from the age of boyhood, followed the practice of recording, from day to day, every incident of importance, a practice thought to weaken the memory. This wonderful power of recollection was aided by the strict method with which he pursued his studies for the earlier part of his life, and until weighed down by the burdens of executive office, on entering the Department of State. He had, withal, a diligence which nothing could weary. He rose at the earliest hour, and had an occupation for every moment of the day.

"Without having made a distinct pursuit of any one branch of knowledge, he was, probably, possessed of a greater amount and variety of accurate information than any other man in the country. It follows, of course, that he had pushed his inquiries far beyond the profession to which he was bred, or that reading which belongs directly to the publicist and the statesman. Few among us drank so deeply at the ancient fountains. To his

acquaintance with the language and literature of Greece and Rome, he added two leading languages of Continental Europe, of which the French was a second mother-tongue. The office of President of the United States, at least as filled by Mr. Adams, is one of extreme labor, but he found time, amidst its incessant calls and interruptions, to address a series of letters to his youngest son, some of them, written in the busiest period of the session, containing an elaborate analysis of several of the orations of Cicero, designed to aid the young man in the perusal of this, his favorite author. At the close of one of these letters (as if it were impossible to fill up his industrious day), he adds, that he is reading Evelyn's 'Sylva' with great delight. Some of these letters would be thought a good day's work for a scholar by profession. But Mr. Adams wrote with rapidity and ease, which would hardly have been suspected from his somewhat measured style. Notwithstanding the finish of his sentences, they were, like Gibbon's, struck off at once, and never had to be retouched. I remember that once, as I sat by his side in the House of Representatives, I was so much struck with the neatness and beauty of the manuscript of a report of great length which he had brought into the House, and in which, as I turned over the leaves, I could not perceive an interlineation, that I made a remark to him on the subject. He told me it was the first draft, and had never been copied; and, in that condition, it was sent to the press, though sure to be the subject of the severest criticism."

Although it may be said that Mr. Adams did not accomplish much as a literary man, did not leave behind him great popular works to perpetuate his name, it is true, that as a scholar and writer he stood first among the Presidents; and, as a poet, he was entirely alone among the statesmen of his age; and, among the politicians of distinction in his own country, yet remains without a rival.

His mother was, perhaps, the most intelligent and able letter-writer of her sex in America at that day, and he had not left her side as a little boy on his first voyage across the sea until he had exhibited the fact