as a speaker and debater.” His interest in public matters was growing with the excitement of the times. The infamous fugitive-slave law, for the restoration of runaway slaves to their masters, had been enacted by Congress, as a compromise measure, and no people of the country felt more outraged by the attempts to enforce the Act than the people of the Western Reserve. The excitement became intense. Young men partook of it in common with older citizens. It pervaded the higher schools. It was as strong in the Eclectic Institute as elsewhere. School and village lyceums received an impetus from it. James was an uncompromising foe to slavery before; if possible, he was more so now. The excitement fired him up in debate. He was more denunciatory than ever of slavery. He had been a great admirer of Daniel Webster, but his advocacy of the Fugitive-Slave Bill awakened his contempt. He was not a young man to conceal his feelings, and so his utterance was emphatic

“A covenant with death, and an agreement with hell,” he exclaimed, quoting from Isaiah, “that will destroy the authors of it. The cry of the oppressed and downtrodden will appeal to the Almighty for retribution, like that of the blood of Abel. The lightning of Divine wrath will yet shiver the old, gnarled tree of slavery to pieces, leaving neither root nor branch!”

When James became assistant-teacher, he had for a pupil, in his Greek class, Miss Lucretia Rudolph, the young lady in whom he was so much interested at Chester. Her father removed to Hiram, in order to give her a better opportunity to acquire a through education.

James was glad to meet her; and he was happy to welcome so talented a scholar as pupil. He had no expectation that she would ever stand in a closer relation to him than pupil. But the weeks and months rolled on, and she became one of his permanent scholars, not only in Greek, but in other branches as well; in all of them developing a scholarship that won his admiration. At the same time her many social and moral qualities impressed him, and the impression deepened from month to month. The result was, before he closed his connection with the school, that a mutual attachment grew up between them, and she engaged to become his wife when he had completed his course of study, and was settled. He was twenty-two years of age, and Miss Rudolph was one year his junior.

This was one of the most important steps that James had taken, and it proved to be one of the most fortunate. Those who prophesied that the engagement would interfere with his studies did not fully understand or appreciate the solidity of his character nor the inflexibility of his purpose. Such love affairs are often deprecated because so many young men allow them to interfere with their life-purpose, thus disclosing weakness and puerile ideas. With James the love affair became an aid to the controlling purpose of his life, and at the same time served to refine his coarser qualities by passing them through the fire of a pure and exalted passion. True love is sweeter and higher than the brightest talents, and when its pure and elevating influence refines the latter they shine with a fairer lustre than ever. This was eminently true of James.

Notwithstanding James was so bashful and retiring when he first went to Chester to commence his studies, he became one of the most social and genial students at Hiram. He was the life of the social circle. Unlike many ripe students, whose minds are wholly absorbed in their studies, he could unbend himself, and enter into a social occasion with zest, bringing his talents, his acquisitions, his wit and humour, to contribute to the enjoyment of all. The lady in Illinois, from whom we have twice quoted, says on this point:

“During the month of June the entire school went in carriages to their annual grove-meeting, at Randolph, some twenty-five miles away. On this trip he was the life of the party, occasionally bursting out in an eloquent strain at the sight of a bird, or a trailing vine, or a venerable giant of the forest. He would repeat poetry by the hour, having a very retentive memory.”

The reader learns from this, that it was not “small talk,” nor mere slang and folly, that he contributed to a social time, but sensible, instructive material. He had no sympathy for, or patience with, young men who dabbled in silly or trifling conversation and acts, to entertain associates. To him it was evidence of