the middle. For I tried it all around the house, and went to the barn
with my uncles, and could discover no variation. Consequently I must
have been mistaken at home. But on our return I could not find by the
stars but that we were just in the center of creation. Whenever I went
with my parents to a neighbor's for an evening's visit, my first and
foremost thought was to see how far to one side they were. But I
always found myself just in the center of this great world; just as
grown-up children are prone to think their own nation is ahead in arts
and sciences, of all other nations--their own State ahead of all other
States in moral and intellectual improvements--their own town or city,
like Boston, the "hub of the universe." In fact, _we_ are about
the center; our pets more knowing, and our children smarter, than can
be found elsewhere. But as the study of astronomy gives ability to
look upon the vast universe of thousands of worlds much larger than
our own, revolving in their orbits, it develops our intellectual
faculties, and enables us to view the concave appearance of the
ethereal blue from a standpoint widely differing from the occupancy of
the center. And when supreme self is melted away by faith in the blood
of the covenant, our spiritual vision becomes clearer and our
miniature minds are expanding, and we learn to make due allowances for
the acts and opinions of others, that we have called peculiar, because
they do not quite accord with our own usages and tastes.

In 1815 my father removed with his family to Cambria, Niagara County,
Western New York, then a wilderness. Soon after we were settled in our
new home, we lost my baby brother Joseph, which made a deep impression
upon my young heart, and gave me great uneasiness in regard to my own
future happiness, should I be taken away. I found great relief, one
day, while listening to a conversation between father and grandfather,
as to what age children were responsible to their Creator. Father gave