It was a new language and its appreciation I certainly owe to dramatic representation, for, until I saw "Macbeth" played, my interest in Shakespeare was not aroused.

I had not read the plays.
[Footnote 17: Edwin Adams.] At a much later date, Wagner was revealed to me in "Lohengrin." I had heard at the Academy of Music in New York, little or nothing by him when the overture to "Lohengrin" thrilled me as a new revelation.
Here was a genius, indeed, differing from all before, a new ladder upon which to climb upward--like Shakespeare, a new friend.
I may speak here of another matter which belongs to this same period.
A few persons in Allegheny--probably not above a hundred in all--had formed themselves into a Swedenborgian Society, in which our American relatives were prominent.

My father attended that church after leaving the Presbyterian, and, of course, I was taken there.

My mother, however, took no interest in Swedenborg.

Although always inculcating respect for all forms of religion, and discouraging theological disputes, she maintained for herself a marked reserve.