Adin ballou biography of michael

At his solicitation I was induced to join a debating club connected with the institution, in which I a few times mustered courage enough to speak. There was a library in the same connection from which I took books to read at my convenience. By these means I made partial amends for the lack of regular educational advantages and gained some valuable intellectual culture which otherwise I should have missed.

Near the close of the yearafter the farming operations were for the most part suspended for the season, it was arranged that I should go to school ten weeks during the coming winter in the neighboring town of Franklin, Massachusetts. The school was nothing but a rural district one, but it was to be in charge of one Caleb Ward Wilson of Mendon in the same state, a talented and successful teacher at that day, and was to have among its pupils some twenty or more young men and women who had attended sundry higher seminaries of learning under celebrated classical preceptors.

So that the opportunity was an especially favorable one for me, much better than I had ever before enjoyed. I was to board in the family of my uncle, Daniel Sayles, a resident of the town, whose wife was a sister of my father. His oldest unmarried daughter, Avilda, had been an accomplished teacher, and his youngest daughter, Juliana, about twenty years of age, was an excellent scholar; while his sons, Orin and Ariel, about my own age, who had shared some superior educational advantages, were to be my fellow students.

These circumstances rendered the opening additionally desirable and promising. When I entered the crowded schoolhouse at the beginning of the term, I felt not only rusty in scholarship but a little awkward from the consciousness of being surrounded by proud-spirited associates who could not easily suppress their prejudices against a green Rhode Islander.

It was therefore prudent for me to he modest - at least, not to expose my ignorance presumptuously or unnecessarily. Our teacher was really a superior one and handled his school in a manner worthy of his great reputation. In dealing with his large upper class, which made an imposing array upon the high seats, right and left, he treated them with marked respect, in consideration of their age and attainments, not only allowing but urging them to have opinions of their own, and to differ from him if their judgment so dictated, as well as from each other on all critical points, especially those of grammatical construction and analysis.

Issue might be taken upon any question at any time and the parties involved might give reasons for their opinion, each one arguing in adin ballou biography of michael order according to his best judgment and ability. There were several in the class who deemed themselves well advanced in scholarship and capable of criticism, and there were some exciting discussions both among the pupils and between pupils and teacher.

If he happened to make a mistake, which rarely occurred, he was manly enough not only to hear himself foiled in argument without wounded pride, but to yield the point with open-hearted frankness and promptitude. For my part, I listened with thoughtful attention to all that was said and done for adin ballou biography of michael or six weeks, but did not venture a word of my own, waiting to have my scholastic rustiness well scoured off and learn how bright and keen my fellow pupils were before measuring lances with them.

At length, finding that they were not altogether infallible, and thinking I was not wholly incompetent to cope with them in any case where our opinions might not concur, I cautiously submitted, now and then, some criticism of their conclusions. My bashfulness made this a severe trial to me - all the more so when I saw that I was regarded as one aspiring to a rank above my merits and antecedents.

This, however, in the end proved to be an advantage to me, for it awakened in me a sense of self-respect and a determination not to be cowered into tame servility to those in no wise my betters. So on one occasion I took the liberty of questioning the correctness of a certain analysis and the appropriateness of the rule given for it. My comrades stared with contemptuous scorn at what they assumed to be my presumption, and the teacher decided off-hand against me.

I stated my position so clearly and gave my reasons so conclusively that the teacher was himself convinced and immediately responded, "He is right after all, and I am wrong. Such experiences, when looked back upon from the far-off summit of advanced age, seem of little consequence if superficially regarded, yet they were in fact of great account to the novices immediately concerned - means of discipline, of progress and lasting enjoyment.

They, too, are texts in the volume of human nature on which we can profitably moralize. They remind us that no one ever rises above the level of his supposed-to-be proper sphere without a struggle. His progress is obstructed and resisted by adverse surroundings, by jeering contemporaries, or envious rivals, and he must fight and conquer or be ignominiously overcome.

Even those who from natural relationship or friendly consideration ought to cheer on the struggling aspirant, often frown contemptuously on his efforts and dissuade him from pressing forward in the line of his nobler purposes and aspirations. As Eliab said to David in the Bible story of Goliath, "Why comest thou down hither, and with whom hast thou left the few sheep in the wilderness?

I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thy heart. For thou hast come that thou mightest see the battle. Is there not a cause? Having gained my point and a reputable standing in the school and wishing to avoid all unpleasant rivalry or whatever would occupy an undue proportion of my time and energy, I betook myself to those studies necessary to a well-rounded development in which I was particularly deficient, and where there was little or no emulation.

I had always the best understanding with this teacher, and profited greatly by his instruction. His school proved to be my college of graduation. I did not "finish" my education there, as some seem to do in regularly organized institutions of learning, but I never again was a student in any strictly educational establishment of any kind or name.

An Important Trust The same winter developed other interesting occurrences beside those connected with my school, some of which resulted in experiences of signal importance. Preliminary to the legal solemnization of the union, there must be the usual publishment of the intentions of the parties on the part of the town clerk, either by "crying" the same in religious meeting on two successive Sabbaths, or by "posting" for two weeks in some place of public concourse.

It was quite a desideratum with those immediately concerned to have this done as noiselessly as possible and to make it, since it must be known in due time, a surprise to outsiders, even to the family relatives. I was a special confidant in the matter, and to me was entrusted the necessary mission to the public official authorized to act in such cases, with the special charge to execute it with the utmost secrecy.

Having accepted the trust, I was confronted with the double problem of how to fulfill it and how to do this with the desired secrecy. I must not take any of my school hours nor absent myself from my meals, nor engage a horse with which to ride to the residence of the town clerk, which was three miles away, since either of these would excite suspicion and lead to a discovery of the whole plot.

So after supper one evening I slipped quietly out of the house and by an unfamiliar, unfrequented road reached, after much difficulty, the place I was seeking. Unfortunately, the clerk was not at home, being engaged in teaching some distance away and not returning except on Saturday evening for the Sabbath. I had not been missed or inquired for, and under a deep sense of humiliation, I resolved to try again on the ensuing Saturday evening, confident that I should then be able to make everything sure.

There is no aspect of the question, either on his side on his opponents', which he has not followed up in his writings.

Adin ballou biography of michael

I mention all this to show the unmistakeable interest which such works ought to have for men who make a profession of Christianity, and because one would have thought Ballou's work would have been well known, and the ideas expressed by him would have been either accepted or refuted; but such has not been the case. Bradbury The members were men and women drawn together by a common interest in the great principles of liberal and practical Christianity at a time when church doctrines were narrow.

In addition to the vital principles of ultimate salvation for all, temperance, non-resistance, etc. Some were non-shavers, and all, I think, were non-smokers. The fads, which were almost as dear to the hearts of their owners as the principles, were often discussed in public, and the free play of the various natures, grave and gay, matter of fact and mischievously humorous, made these meetings a "continuous performance" of vast entertainment.

Retrieved October 30, Instead of violence. New York: Grossman Publishers. History of the town of Milford, Worcester county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to Providence: Ariel Ballou and Latimer W. National Park Service. Retrieved March 1, Cassell Publishing Company. Brill's Companion to Anarchism and Philosophy : — ISBN Further reading [ edit ].

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