and we were both welcome guests at fashionable
entertainments.

I was passionately fond of music, and scarcely less so of dancing, and
the history of the next two winters would, if written, chronicle a
series of balls, concerts, and dinners.

I did not, even in these years of social routine, abandon either my
studies or my hope of contributing to the literature of my generation.
Hours were not then unreasonably late. Dancing parties usually broke up
soon after one o'clock, and left me fresh enough to enjoy the next day's
study.

We saw many literary people and some of the scientists with whom my
brother had become acquainted while in Europe. Among the first was John
L. O'Sullivan, the accomplished editor of the "Democratic Review." When
the poet Dana visited our city, he always called upon us, and we
sometimes had the pleasure of seeing with him his intimate friend,
William Cullen Bryant, who very rarely appeared in general society.

Among our scientific guests I especially remember an English gentleman
who was in those days a distinguished mathematician, and who has since
become very eminent. He was of the Hebrew race, and had fallen violently
in love with a beautiful Jewish heiress, well known in New York. His
wooing was not fortunate, and the extravagance of his indignation at its
result was both pathetic and laughable. He once confided to me his
intention of paying his addresses to the lady's young niece. "And Miss
---- shall become our Aunt Hannah!" he said, with extreme bitterness.

I exhorted him to calm himself by devotion to his scientific pursuits,
but he replied: "Something better than mathematics has waked up here!"
pointing to his heart. He wrote many verses, which he read aloud to our
sympathizing circle. I recall from one of these a distich of some merit.
Speaking of his fancied wrongs, and warning his fair antagonist to
beware of the revenge which he might take, he wrote:--

"Wine gushes from the trampled grape,
Iron's branded into steel."

In the end he returned to the science which had been his first love, and
which rewarded his devotion with a wide reputation.

These years glided by with fairy-like swiftness. They were passed by my
sisters and myself under my brother's roof, where the beloved uncle also
made his home with us so long as we remained together.

I have dwelt a good deal on the circumstances and surroundings of my
early life in my native city. If this state of things here de