PREFACE. THERE are three persons who, better than any others, could have told the simple, uneventful story of Mr. Staples's life. Of these his wife stands first. She would not have me say it, but I must. And I regret unspeakably that any distrust of her own ability or fitness should have prevented her doing what I am sure she would have done most perfectly. As I have talked with her about her husband, her appreciation of his character and work has seemed so perfect, her sympathy with all his hopes and plans so lively and profound, that I never shall be reconciled to her unwillingness to be his biographer and the editress of his writings. I am only partly reconciled by the consideration that she would not have told, as I must tell, or be no true biographer of him, what noble furtherance her husband found in her, what intellectual and spiritual companionship, what rest in weariness, what patient /cheer in sickness and in death. The other two persons are Carlton Staples, the brother of Augustus, and Robert Collyer, his friend. Of these, the brother, at an early day, surrendered his claim on this task to the friend, who went on year after year hoping against hope that the burden would be lifted a little and opportunity be granted for telling what a man was here. But the new years have only brought new cares, and at last he has felt himself obliged to relinquish all hope of doing that which, with an easier yoke, would be the first-fruits of his leisure. And here again I am only partly reconciled when I remember that Carlton Staples would not have told how well he played a brother's part, and that Robert Collyer would not have written how large a place he himself filled in his friend's thought and life. Among Mr. Staples's Brooklyn friends the desire for a brief memoir of him, together with a few of his sermons, has not diminished with the lapse of years. At their request and Mrs. Staples's I have prepared this volume. Should it meet with their approval, I shall be satisfied, for it has already met with hers. I even dare to hope that a few persons who did not know Mr. Staples when he was living may come to know him in these pages. I have tried to make such a sketch that those who read it shall declare, "This is no eulogy; it is the true story of a man's life." My gladness that my task is ended is tinged with sorrow; for the many hours of sweet communion I have had with this "son of man in heaven" have rewarded me a thousand times over for my easy toil. BROOKLYN, November 25, 1869. J. W. C. NAHOR AUGUSTUS STAPLES. I. YOUTH AND EARLY EDUCATION. NAHOR AUGUSTUS STAPLES was born in Mendon, Mass., August 24th, 1830. Jason Staples, his father, was born in December, 1799; his mother, Phila Taft, only a month later, January, 1800. Both family names appear on the first taxlist of the town, that of 1685, and both names figure largely in the history of the place. In 1868 Carlton Staples, the brother of Augustus, delivered an address at Mendon, commemorative of the incorporation of the town. two hundred years before; and the poet of the occasion made tender and affectionate reference to Augustus, who, could he have been spared, would have added much to the joy of the occasion, and would have rejoiced in it mightily. For, as Carlton shows in his address, the traditions of the town are of no mean sort. It has always had a great deal of character and individuality. Once, too, it had magnificent proportions, but of these it has long since been shorn. A sad commentary on the "good old times," in which so many have such faith, are some of the traditions. In 1730, there was a long and desperate struggle over the location of the new meeting-house. But at the raising a |