This, I know will be deemed excessive vanity--but time shall prove it
prophetic." To the charge of youth he makes this stinging rejoinder,
which evinces the progress he was making in the tournament of language:
"The little, paltry sneers at my youth by your correspondent have long
since become pointless. It is the privileged abuse of old age--the
hackneyed allegation of a thousand centuries--the damning _crime_ to
which all men have been subjected. I leave it to metaphysicians to
determine the precise moment when wisdom and experience leap into
existence, when, for the first time, the mind distinguishes truth from
error, selfishness from patriotism, and passion from reason. It is
sufficient for me that I am understood." This was Garrison's first
experience with "gentlemen of property and standing" in Boston. It was
not his last, as future chapters will abundantly show.





CHAPTER II.



THE MAN HEARS A VOICE: SAMUEL, SAMUEL!


There is a moment in the life of every serious soul, when things, which
were before unseen and unheard in the world around him become visible
and audible. This startling moment comes to some sooner, to others
later, but to all, who are not totally given up to the service of self,
at sometime surely. From that moment a change passes over such an one,