he Anti-Slavery Bazaar. I
suppose there were many beautiful things exhibited, but I was so
absorbed in the conversation of Mr. Higginson, Samuel May, Jr.,
Sarah Earle, cousin Seth Rogers and Stephen and Abby Foster, that I
really forgot to take a survey of the tables. The next day Charles
F. Hovey drove with me out to the home of the Fosters where we had
a pleasant call.[20]

[Autograph: Theodore Parker]

Miss Anthony visited a baby show but she considered it "a sad
exhibition, unless it may be the crude and rude beginning of arousing
an interest in the laws which govern the production of strong, healthy,
beautiful children." She heard Mr. Higginson preach every Sunday, and
of one sermon on the "Secret Springs of True Greatness" she writes
home:

The minister read from the Book of Esdras in the Apocrypha. It is
astonishing that such a beautiful and forcible exemplification of
the governing principle of life should have been cast aside as
doubtful by those who presumed to sit in judgment upon the revealed
will of the Almighty. That they did fail to perceive in this the
divine stamp, proves all the more conclusively to me that we, who
have the experience of all past generations to enlighten our
understanding and deepen our convictions, are infinitely more
competent to discern between the good and evil in that wonderful
book than were any king-appointed councils of olden times.

During Mr. Higginson's absence his place was filled by Rev. David A.
Wasson, who was temporarily a resident of the "water cure." His sermons
and his daily companionship were a revelation to Miss Anthony of a
higher intellectual and spiritual life than she had known before, and
she records in her diary: "It is plain to me now that it is not sitting
under preaching that I dislike, but the fact that most of it is not of
a stamp that my soul can respond to." While in Worcester she went to
her first Republican meeting and heard John P. Hale. Her cousin
escorted her to a seat on the platform and Mr. Hale gave her a cordial
welcome. She was the only woman present, although several peeped in at
the door but had not the courage to enter. She also heard Henry Wilson,
Charles Sumner and Anson Burlingame, and writes: "Had the accident of
birth given me place among the aristocracy of sex, I doubt not I should
be an active, zealous advocate of Republicanism; unless, perchance, I
had received th