these interesting particulars, we learn that Oberlin, with renewed assistance from Strasburg, was enabled to establish a library for the use of the children in the different schools, and also to furnish an electrical machine and other philosophical instruments. Oberlin likewise has the credit of having at this time struck out an original idea, which has since been perfected in Scotland. This was the establishment of small itinerating libraries. A neat and handy collection of books being put into a case, was left at a village for three months, for the use of the inhabitants. At the end of this time it was removed to another village, and another collection of books, different from the former, took its place. Thus collections of books, some of which were printed at Oberlin's own expense, were made to circulate through the canton, and a continual fund of amusement and instruction kept up.† The arrangements for the intellectual cultivation of his people were not yet terminated. A crowning point to his labours in the department of literature, was the composing and publishing of an almanac for the use of his parishioners. This interesting annual was divested of all the falsehoods and superstitions with which almanacs are usually filled; and, like that of "Poor Richard," was replete with useful advices, and hints on many subjects of interest.

Here we may again pause in our recital of Oberlin's benevolent enterprises, to notice some matters of a personal nature.

FAMILY HISTORY-PERSONAL TRAITS.

Oberlin had been married sixteen years, during which time he had born to him a family of three sons and four daughters, when his beloved Madeleine was taken from him by death. This sad event, which occurred in 1784, was sudden and unforeseen, and filled the humble parsonage with grief, not however the sorrow of despair. At the period of his marriage he composed a prayer, craving the divine blessing on his union, and concluding with the affecting wish, that it might not be the fate of himself and partner to be long separated from each other, but that the death of one might swiftly follow that of the other. In this his hopes were not realised. For the benefit of his fellow-creatures, he lived for the lengthened period of forty-two years after the death of his wife, and as a widower surrounded by his family.

The loss of Madame Oberlin was in some degree supplied to her children by a young woman, an orphan, named Louisa

*Memoirs of John Frederick Oberlin. London: Houldsworth. 1833. Fourth edition--a work drawn up with great taste, by a female writer, to which we would refer for many details too minute for the present biographic sketch.

An account of the plan of Itinerating Libraries, pursued in some parts of Scotland, will be found in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 17, old

series.

and connected words, their jealousy of the strange lesson-books gradually gave way; and finally, when they saw that the children could read any book fluently, they not only abandoned all opposition, but begged to be taught to read also. A great victory had now been achieved: a bigotted prejudice, the result of ignorance, had, by kindness and perseverance, been successfully rooted out. Having thus brought the population into a reading humour, M. Stouber procured fifty Bibles from Strasburg, and dividing each into three parts, strongly bound in vellum, he was able to distribute a hundred and fifty books among the families throughout the canton. The taste for reading the Scriptures being by this means created, there soon arose a demand for Bibles, and some hundreds were advantageously disposed of.

In the space of six years, a considerable change for the better was thus made on the social condition of the district, which M. Stouber expected still to improve, when he was appointed pastor of Barr in Lorraine. He was not long in this new situation, when he regretted that he had left the Ban de la Roche; and some time thereafter, when the pastorship of that canton was again vacant, he gladly returned to it, to the great joy of many of his old parishioners. He now remained four years, fulfilling his important duties, and daily improving the minds of the people committed to his charge. Unfortunately, his wife, who was an active co-operator in his plans, died, leaving him forlorn and dispirited; and being offered the situation of pastor to St Thomas's church, in Strasburg, he accepted it, though greatly fearful that, by his departure, the Ban de la Roche would relapse into the condition from which he had been instrumental in raising it. Pondering on this unhappy prospect, it occurred to him that if Oberlin, with whose abilities he was well acquainted, could be prevailed on to accept the vacant charge, no fears need be entertained for the continued wellbeing of the district.

On arriving in Strasburg, M. Stouber hastened to call on his young friend, whom he found in a humble lodging, which contained a small bed, with brown-paper curtains, and a little iron pan, with which Oberlin cooked his supper of brown bread, with a little water and a sprinkling of salt-the whole furniture being such as might be expected in the apartment of a student who preferred independence with narrowness of circumstances, to finery with dependence on others. Stouber observed at a glance that Oberlin was precisely the person he expected to find, and frankly communicated his wishes. Oberlin was charmed with the proposition. He would have declined accepting any rich and easy benefice. A parish in which all the inhabitants were poor and ignorant, was quite the thing he had been waiting for. His hour of usefulness had come. In a short time he was installed in the cure of the Ban de la Roche, and, like a primitive apostle setting out for the wilderness, went to assume the trust committed to his charge.

BEGINS OPERATIONS IN THE BAN DE LA ROCHE.

Oberlin arrived at Waldbach, where he was to reside, on the 30th of May 1767, being at the time in his twenty-seventh year. His parsonage-house was a plain building of two storeys, standing on the face of a woody bank near the church, with a garden adjoining, and all around were lofty hills, partly covered with pines, with here and there pieces of pasture and patches of cultivated land. It was a wild rural scene, with a stillness only broken at intervals by the faint sound of the sheep or cow-bells, swept by the breezes along the rugged sides of the mountains.

Notwithstanding the previous efforts of M. Stouber, the united parish seemed to be physically as well as socially in a condition considerably behind that of most other parts of the country. In every population there are two orders of men-one, who with little difficulty are open to a conviction that improvements are desirable, and another, who, either from excess of ignorance or perversity, can tolerate no change whatsoever. On the former of these Stouber had worked with beneficial effect; they appreciated the blessings of the elementary education he had introduced, and were willing to go into the new schemes of melioration which Oberlin proposed to execute. The enemies of innovation, the suspicious, and the prejudiced, who had all along given a grumbling opposition to parochial improvement, of whatever kind, now resolved to adopt active measures to prevent their new pastor from carrying his projects into operation. Their plan, which was quite accordant with the malignity that usually animates such persons, was to waylay their pastor, and inflict on him a severe personal chastisement. Fortunately, Oberlin procured information of their design, and his conduct on this occasion strongly marks the character of this excellent man. A Sunday was fixed on for the execution of the deed. When the day came, he took for his text that fine passage admonitory of meekness, from the fifth chapter of St Matthew: "But I say unto you that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." After the service, the malcontents met at the house of one of the party, where perhaps the sermon they had just heard might furnish them matter of coarse pleasantry, in reference to the occasion which the preacher would soon find for putting in practice the lessons which he had taught so well. What must have been their astonishment when the door opened, and the pastor presented himself in the midst of them! "Here I am, my friends," said he, with that calmness which strikes respect into the most violent; design on me I am acquainted with; you have wished to deal with me in a practical manner, and to chastise me because you deem me culpable. If I have in fact violated the rules which I have laid down for you, punish me for it. It is better that I

your

should deliver myself up to you, and save you the meanness of resorting to an ambuscade." These simple words produced their full effect. The peasants, ashamed of entertaining evil intentions against so good and candid a man, intreated his forgiveness, and promised never again to cherish a doubt of his affection for them. In this manner Oberlin overcame the stubborn and evil dispositions of his more ignorant parishioners, with the best results showing in his own conduct an exemplification of the precepts which it was his duty to enjoin. It even happened that those who had formerly been his enemies, or connived at plots against him, being anxious to reinstate themselves in his good opinion, and conscious that they had no better means of succeeding than by warmly seconding his views, were henceforward among the foremost to offer him assistance.

Aided, however, as Oberlin was by many of his parishioners, there were such difficulties to encounter in executing his benevolent plans, that only the most unwearied patience and self-denying virtue could have surmounted them. His idea of the clerical character was not alone that of a minister of the gospel. Suiting himself to the necessities of his position, he perceived that it was his sacred duty to unite, in his own person, the character of religious pastor with that of secular instructor and adviser, physician, and husbandman. To an earnest inculcation of the doctrines and precepts of Christianity, he added the principles of philosophy, and the resources of a mind skilled in practical science. One of his earliest schemes required him to combine the functions of a civil engineer with that of a day labourer. The account given of his enterprise on this occasion marks the sagacity of his mind and the humility of his disposition.

Looking around on the general condition of the canton, he observed that one of its chief defects was the want of roads communicating with the lower and more improved parts of the country. The only existing thoroughfares were absolutely impassable during six or eight months of the year; and even in summer they were in so wretched a state, that they were never used except when urgent necessity compelled the natives to repair to the neighbouring towns. So long as this state of things lasted, it was evident that there could be no solid improvement or prosperity in the district. Assured of this fact, Oberlin called together his parishioners, and proposed that they should themselves open a road a mile and a half in length, and build a bridge over the river Bruche, so that they might no longer be imprisoned in their villages three-fourths of the year. The boldness of the proposal filled the assembly with astonishment--the thing appeared to them impossible-and every one found an excuse in his private concerns for not engaging in the undertaking. Some hinted that the roads were well enough as they were; for there is

*Notice of a French Memoir of Oberlin in Eclectic Review, October 1827.

nothing too absurd for the discontented to say on such occasions. Not discouraged, Oberlin pointed out to the meeting the advantage which all would derive from having an outlet for the produce of their fields, and the facility with which they would then be able to procure a multitude of comforts and conveniencies of which they were still destitute. He concluded his address by taking up a pick-axe, exclaiming, "All those who feel the importance of my proposal, come and work with me.” At these words his parishioners, ashamed of their pretences, and electrified by his action, hastened to get their tools and to follow him. Oberlin had already, like a good engineer, traced the plan; and when he arrived at the ground, nothing remained but to commence operations. This was done in a style of lively enthusiasm. Each man occupying his assigned post, set to work in earnest, at each stroke making a sensible effect on the soil. The scene of labour attracted all idlers to the spot; and every one, not to be behind in the good work, lent it a helping hand. There was a moral grandeur in the spectacle of so much well-directed industry. It was no small holiday work that was undertaken. To form the required thoroughfare, there was not alone much digging; it was necessary to blast the rocks; to convey down enormous masses, in order to construct a wall to support the road along the banks of the Bruche; to build a bridge in another canton; and to defray all the expenses. Nothing was deemed impossible by Oberlin and his heroic band of improvers. The pastor, who on the Sunday exhorted his auditors never to weary in well-doing, and reminded them of the rest that remaineth for the people of God, was seen on the Monday with a pick-axe on his shoulder, marching at the head of two hundred of his flock, with an energy that braved danger and despised fatigue. Reversing the ordinary maxim of enjoying case with dignity, he had a firm faith in that more glorious, because more truthful precept, that labour is in itself worship. Nor did he alone work with the hands. His head was as constantly scheming ways and means. There were expenses to be met; but he interested his friends in Strasburg and elsewhere, and he did not appeal to them in vain. There are many people who will assist in a good work when their feelings can be interested in its execution. Oberlin, therefore, had the satisfaction of finding many to sympathise in his benevolent projects; and funds were provided. În spite of weather and every obstacle, in two years the work was completed. A good road was made, and a substantial bridge built, affording an easy communication with Strasburg. Roads were then made to connect together the several villages, which had previously been entirely separated from each other during the heavy snows. Walls also were built to prevent the soil on the steep declivities from being washed down by the mountain torrents; and channels were formed to receive or carry off the waters which, after great rains, rushed down with destructive violence.