"
I knew that there was no joy like the joy of pressing forward.
XII.
FROM THE MERRIMACK TO THE MISSISSIPPI.
THE years between 1835 and 1845, which nearly cover the time I
lived at Lowell, seem to me, as I look back at them, singularly
interesting years. People were guessing and experimenting and
wondering and prophesying about a great many things,--about
almost everything. We were only beginning to get accustomed to
steamboats and railroads. To travel by either was scarcely less
an adventure to us younger ones than going up in a balloon.
Phrenology was much talked about; and numerous "professors" of it
came around lecturing, and examining heads, and making charts of
cranial "bumps." This was profitable business to them for a
while, as almost everybody who invested in a "character" received
a good one; while many very commonplace people were flattered
into the belief that they were geniuses, or might be if they
chose.
Mesmerism followed close upon phrenology; and this too had its
lecturers, who entertained the stronger portion of their
audiences by showing them how easily the weaker ones could be
brought under an uncanny influence.
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