Modernism is simply bringing to the hard ordeal of daily life those few great spiritual truths which were emphasized with such force in the teachings of Christianity and which have never yet been tried.

Modernism is as inevitable as the order of the seasons. Cherish all the good there is in the old; establish, spread, trust, the higher possibilities of the new. It first works disintegration, and then brings a broader, truer, and more permanent unity. Protestantism has been a system of disintegration; it is beginning to learn the higher unity. Romanism has been a blind, low, and tyrannical unity. The recent Encyclical is a despairing call to hold on to it with an iron grip, — but in the Old World it begins to show disintegration everywhere. It can have no place as it is wherever the scientific or the historical method is pursued, or where the spirit of democracy prevails. And out of both shall come, through the teachings of the divine order, a true Church of the living God, a Catholic Church such as has never yet been. We are all in a large measure the children of the Zeitgeist; only now and then come leaders of thought, evangels of a broader truth, who at last make for us a higher Zeitgeist. Modernism, whether we will or no, is all that we have to work in and to work for; the past is gone and the future has not come; and any church, any council, any Holy See, or any person who blindly denounces modernism, reproaches the mother who bore him, insults the humanity of which he is a member, slurs God, who is not the God of the dead but of the living, and flings his puny anathemas against the thick bosses of the Almighty's shield.

And we are not to be discouraged. All hail, Modernism!

Remarks were made during the meeting by the PRESIDENT, GRENVILLE H. NORCROSS, F. B. SANBORN, and BARRETT WENDELL.

JUNE MEETING, 1908.

THE stated meeting was held on Thursday, the 11th instant, at three o'clock, P. M.; the President in the chair.

The record of the May meeting was read and approved; and the Librarian read the list of donors to the Library during the last month.

By direction of the Council, the PRESIDENT submitted the following memorandum, prepared by the Treasurer, relative to the bequest of the late Judge Mellen Chamberlain and to the publication of his History of Chelsea:

Under the provisions of Judge Chamberlain's will the Massachusetts Historical Society received his manuscript History of Chelsea, with ten bound folio volumes of manuscripts, plans, engravings, photographs, materials, etc., used in the preparation of said History, with the copyright of said History and the profits of the sale thereof.

The hope was expressed in his will that he would be able to communicate to the Society in a separate paper1 his views in respect to the completion of said History; "but lest I fail to do so," he says, "I will say here that I wish to have the manuscript placed in the hands of a thoroughly competent person for completion and revision, to whom I give the largest discretion in respect to omissions, condensation, changes and additions."

3

For these purposes he gave to the Society the sum of $5000 and a two-ninths share in the residue of his estate. At the meeting of the Society on April 11, 1901, the President announced the receipt from the executors of the will of the late Hon. Mellen Chamberlain of his incomplete History of Chelsea, with the "ten bound folio volumes of manuscripts, plans, en

1 M. Chamberlain, Documentary History of Chelsea (Boston, 1908), xi-xv; 3 xliii-xliv, also 2 Proceedings xvii. 227, and xx. 145, 146.

8 2 Proceedings, xv. 25.

gravings, photographs, materials, etc., used in the preparation of said History."

The Treasurer received on December 16, 1903,1 the sum of $5520 from the executors of Judge Chamberlain, and in May,2 1906, the further sum of $4442.53, and in June, 1906, the further payment of $99.48 in final settlement of its share in the residue of his estate, making the total amount so received $10,062.01.

There has been expended of this sum, in the preparation of the History for publication and in the publication of the same, the sum of $9138.91, leaving a balance now on hand of $923.10; in addition to which are the receipts, from the sale of the History, of $22.

2

My predecessor, Charles C. Smith, made a suggestion in his report as to the desirability of funding any unexpected balance of Judge Chamberlain's bequest and adding thereto any sums which may be received from time to time from the sale of the History.

In view of the fact that the sales of the History are likely to be received in small sums for a considerable period of time. in the future, I recommend that the unexpended balance and the future sums received be made a special deposit in some savings bank in Boston, to be called the "Chamberlain Bequest," and that the annual interest upon the deposit be permitted to accumulate and compound until such time as it shall be reasonably certain that substantially the entire amount which is likely to be received from the sale of the History has been already paid into the treasury, and that then that sum with its interest accumulations be invested as a part of the General Fund of the Society, or applied to such other purposes as the Society or its Council may direct.

The PRESIDENT, in behalf of Mrs. William B. Rogers, presented the original first deposit book of "The Provident Institution for Savings in the Town of Boston," issued on February 19, 1817, to her father, our late associate, James Savage, who was the founder of that institution and successively its secretary, treasurer, vice-president, and president.

Mrs. Rogers also presented several papers relating to the execution of John Brown and the Harper's Ferry affair of Octo1 2 Proceedings, xviii. 61, 276.

2 See ante, 13.

ber, 1859, which were, in 1862, taken by her brother, Captain James Savage,1 from the files of the office of prosecuting attorney Andrew Hunter. Similar papers were given by Mr. Quincy at the February meeting.

A. HAZLETT TO J. H. KAGI.

May 1859 21 INDIANA BA.

DEAR KAGI I Recieved your letter and Was glad to hear from you I Was almost out of patience wating I thought you had for gotten mee

You wrote Some thing about the afairs in Ohio I Wish it Would Come of Soon for I am getting tireed a Doing nothing I Would like to know when the old man Will be Back and when you Want mee the Sooner the better it Will Suit mee

I Would like to See you all again let mee know whats going on When you rite to me give mee a plain hand I can read it better Direct as Be fore rite as Soon as you get this no More but remaines your Friend

JH KAGI

INDIANA BA

A HAZLETT

Saturday 30 1859

DEAR KA I Recieved your letter of the 28 With much Satisfaction I have Been impatient but not Discourageed in the least I Was in Armstrong Co to See my Brother and Recieved your letter on my Return I have Been harvesting for some time and Doing Well I have Been Well I Would like to See you all very Well and be With you once more two Weeks Will be a long time to mee no at present But Remaines your friend

COMMISSION TO A. D. STEVENS.

A H

No. 2. GREETING;

HEAD-QUARTERS WAR-DEPARTMENT,
NEAR HARPERS FERRY, MD.

Whereas, A. D. Stevens has been nominated a Captain in the Army established under the Provisional Constitution,

Now, Therefore, In pursuance of the authority vested in Us by said Constitution, We do hereby Appoint and Commission the said A. D. Stevens a Captain.

Given at the Office of the Secretary of War, this day, Oct. 15, 1859. JOHN BROWN Commander in Chief.

H. KAGI

Secretary of War.

1 See ante, 117-124.

1st Count. The Jurors of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in and for the body of the County of Jefferson, duly empannelled and attending upon said Court upon their oath present that Owen Brown being a free person, on the sixteenth and seventeenth days of the month of October, in the year Eighteen hundred and fifty nine, and on divers other days before and after that time, in the County of Jefferson and Commonwealth of Virginia aforesaid, and within the Jurisdiction of this court, not having the fear of God before his eyes, but moved and seduced by the instigations of the Devil, did, maliciously, wilfully and feloniously, advise certain Slaves, of the County and Commonwealth aforesaid, to wit: Slaves called Jim, Sam, Mason and Catesby, the slaves of Lewis W. Washington, and Slaves called Henry, Levi, Ben, Jerry, Phil, George and Bill, the Slaves of John H. Allstadt, and each of said Slaves severally, to rebel and make insurrection against their said masters respectively, and against the authority of the Constitution and Laws of the said Commonwealth of Virginia, to the evil example of all others in like case offending, against the form of the Statute in that case provided, and against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

2nd Count. And the Jurors aforesaid upon their oath aforesaid, do further present that the said Owen Brown being a free person, on the sixteenth and seventeenth days of the month of October, in the year Eighteen hundred and fifty nine, and on divers other days before and after that time, in the County of Jefferson, and Commonwealth of Virginia aforesaid, and within the Jurisdiction of this Court, not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigations of the Devil, did maliciously, wilfully and feloniously conspire with certain Slaves, of the County and Commonwealth aforesaid, to wit: negro Slaves Jim, Sam, Mason and Catesby, the Slaves of Lewis W. Washington, and negro Slaves Henry, Levi, Ben, Jerry, Phil, George and Bill, the Slaves of John H. Allstadt, and with each of said Slaves severally, to rebel and make insurrection against their said masters respectively, and against the authority of the Constitution and Laws of the said Commonwealth of Virginia, to the evil example of all others in like case offending against the form of the Statute in that case provided, and against the Peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

3rd Count. And the Jurors aforesaid upon their oath aforesaid, do further present that the said Owen Brown being a free person, on the sixteenth and seventeenth days of the month of October, in the