I
read much in Plato and Aristotle, Cicero and Seneca, for a time, and
then in Plutarch, M. A. Antonine, and Epictetus. The works of Epictetus,
with the comments of Simplicius, proved exceedingly profitable. I then
read the writings of Theodore Parker, Dr. Channing, and some of the
works of Dr. Priestley, and got good from all. They all helped to
inspire me with a horror of Atheism, and to strengthen my faith in God,
and in His boundless and eternal love. I next read a number of my own
works, beginning with those that were somewhat skeptical, and reading
backwards, to those which were Christian. I then read freely my old
companions and favorites, including Hooker, Baxter, and Howe; Jeremy
Taylor, William Law, and Bishop Butler. I read Shakespeare freely, and
Pope, and then Thomson, and Goldsmith, and Young, and Cowper, and
Tennyson, and several others of our poets. Then came the works of
Carlyle, Burke, Penn, and Wesley; of Robert Hall, and Dr. Cooke, and Mr.
Newton; and the writings of Paley and Grotius. I also read Guizot's
_History of Civilization_, and those portions of Dr. Henry's _History of
England_ that referred to the Church and Christianity. Still later I
read Augustine's _Confessions_, Montalembert's _Monks of the West_, and
everything I could find to illustrate the history of Christianity.
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