a high reputation. Courses of lectures on the different branches of the healing art are given by able and experienced professors; and ample opportunities and preparations are furnished and made to enable the pupils, respectable in numbers, to employ their time to the best advantage.

If Vermont has not yet produced any very celebrated poets; who have proved themselves such by some masterly and extensive work of imagination in harmonious and splendid versification, she is not without sons and daughters of the lyre, whose notes have resounded amid her hills and valleys. Green mountain bards' is not a mere flourish of words. Such have been; such still are; self-taught; retired, and distrustful; yielding with reluctance their sweetly flowing strains to the public gaze. The writer has known some such, imbued with the true spirit of poetry; sought them out; and solicited and sometimes obtained specimens of their pens for the public journals. One such lived and died on Putney West-hill; who spoke many pieces of original and interesting poetry; but committed very little to writing. The writer rode some fifteen or twenty miles to pen down a few particular stanzas from the lips of his grandson, who was known to have repeated them often with other similar effusions. But his lips had been sealed in death a few days previous; and the opportunity of giving them a fixed visible being was forever gone. For his son, a venerable pilgrim sojourner on that hill, ninety-two years of age, could awaken no traces of them in his memory. Another admonition was this of the

wisdom of doing quickly what you have to do; and of going without delay to him from whose lips you would rescue words and things from oblivion. If you linger, he may die before you reach him, or you may fall before he meets you.

The importance also is seen impressively in the light of such facts, of committing to writing whatever is worthy of being remembered. For if it be true, as said the Roman poet, 'vox missa nescit reverti,' a word sent forth from the lips knows not the way back;' it is also true; if you keep no record of it; have no controling rein upon it, you may not know where to find it, however much you might wish to show it the way of return.

But the ride was not wholly lost; for another opportunity was afforded him of viewing the surrounding country from the summit of this hill.

The view from this eminence is rich and variegated and majestic. Few portions are more enchanting. As you face the south, you have on your right the narrow and deep valley of West river; and on your left the somewhat broader one of the Connecticut, some two thousand feet below you. Then the whole compass of the horizon to a great extent opens to your view, excepting a few degrees on the north being intercepted by a clump of trees. A large portion of the southwest part of New Hampshire; and the northwestern of Massachusetts; and the southern section of Vermont is before you. From the Connecticut valley, your eye goes over hill and dale; clearings and woodlands; villages, and hamlets and cottages, till it reaches the summit of

Monadnock, and thence north on the blue highlands towards the White Hills. The silvery surface of the Connecticut, below Brattleboro, distant ten or fifteen miles, and the irregular and broken ridges of southern Vermont, and Franklin county in Massachusetts, come in sight; and the summit of the green mountains far to the north, with their endless variety of shapes; with the haystack and saddle back, and the Stratton cliffs; limits your view on the right, but fixes your attention in silent admiration.

293

CHAPTER XXI.

Religion. The three principal denominations.-Congregationalists.-Some account of them.-Baptists.-Their peculiarities. Anecdote of an Elder.-Methodists.-Their rules and support of preachers.-Episcopalians.-Universalists.-Unitarians.

THE three largest denominations of christians in Vermont, are the Congregational, Baptist, and Methodist. These do not greatly vary from each other in point of numbers.

The early churches were formed principally by Congregationalists. By this is intended the very first churches organized; though mention is made, in the early records, of a baptist clergyman officiating in the religious services at a session of the general assembly. As the leaders in reducing this rough surface, and rougher political exterior, to a comparative smoothness and regularity and order, were mostly from Connecticut; so were the early heralds of the cross. They were sent by the missionary society of that state; and Bushnell, and Mills and Hallock and Williston, and others of this denomination came early, extending the borders of that kingdom, which is not of this world. Their labors were blessed; and the rules of that kingdom clearly stated and explained; and the qualifications of citizenship pointed out, and the securing

of the inheritance recommended and urged. Many, who were aliens and foreigners, have, it is hoped, become fellow-citizens of this commonwealth, whose verdure shall be as perpetual as that of the tree of life. The doctrines taught were those of the Bible as explained by "the assembly's catechism." The system of church government of this denomination is in their apprehension that of the church militant as established by Christ and his apostles; the pastor moderator; and the male members as a body, voters.

Each church is independent in its jurisdiction and in matters of discipline. Their decision is final with regard to its members, whose walk is inconsistent with the rules of Christ; unless the church should be consociated; that is, connected with several other churches on certain conditions; relinquishing its right of deciding without appeal; and giving an aggrieved member the privilege of appealing to the "Committee of Consociation." Candidates for admission into the church are examined by the pastor, generally assisted by a committee, but often before the whole body, any of whom may propose what questions they please. Assent is given to "the articles of faith" adopted by the church, and to the

covenant.

The pastors and ministers have, for their mutual improvement and benefit, formed themselves into associations, consisting of ten or twelve members most conveniently situated, who meet two or three times annually. Delegates from these bodies meet annually on the second Tuesday in September, in convention; called "The