Wasson told me that he was in the right. If his
wife had no suspicion of him we need have none.
He went directly from Bangor to Groveland, a pleasant village
beautifully situated on the Merrimack, which from Haverhill to the sea
is one of the finest American rivers. His _fiancee_ had numerous
relatives in the place, and it was owing to her influence that he
received a call there. At first all the signs were favorable; the young
minister was well liked, and his parishioners were only afraid that a
man of such rare ability would soon gravitate to a larger congregation.
So he might have done, if his ardent, aspiring soul would have permitted
him to temporize with his conscience, and to be content with mere
popularity and doing good on a small scale. But the thought that was
matured within him could no longer be restrained. The dangerous seed
sown by reading "Sartor Resartus" had now become a strong young tree and
must have air and light or it would perish. In October 1852 he preached
a sermon that fairly astounded his amiable parishioners. He argued that
regeneration and salvation were not to be obtained by blind faith in
Jesus, but by intelligent moral culture and spiritual development. This
view was, as far as I know, original with Wasson, and should be
distinguished from the anti-miraculous standpoint of Parker and the
natural supernaturalism of Emerson.
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