defence of the inalienable right of every man to himself, the right of every woman to her chastity, and the sacredness of the parental relation.
To a young and enthusiastic person like Walter, whose inexperience in the world led him to suppose others would be just as ready as he to condemn a wrong or reject an error when it should be clearly proved, it was a source of the greatest perplexity why individuals standing high in the church, and making the loudest professions of philanthrophy should be so indifferent to this wholesale system of plunder and concubinage, to say nothing of the immortal interests involved, wherein according to their creed it was impossible for its victims to escape the miseries of the damned. Could they lead the lives which should make them heirs of salvation when bound by the laws of the land to submit to those very sins which are denounced in the Bible as deserving of hell-fire?
With that fearless moral independence which was such a conspicuous trait in his character he spoke his honest thoughts regardless of consequences, although it was often trying to his warm-hearted and generous nature to meet the coldness of former friends who, through his whole life, had showered him with kindness, and given him their warmest benedictions, justly meriting his deepest gratitude.
But the greatest trial he had to pass through, which was as unexpected as it was painful, was the opposition of his mother. He had never dreamed that she, whose sympathies overflowed towards the whole human family, and whose hand was ever ready to assist
