Coral Grove, Aug. 13, 1851.

My Dear Friend: I always feel a degree of pleasure in writing to you, which it would perhaps be difficult to account for, inasmuch as ours is altogether a one-sided correspondence. It is seldom that I have anything to relate which will be interesting to you, for with the dim watery world which I call my home, you have little to do. Your home is in the boundless, shadowy realm of thought, of which we Undines know almost nothing. We are guided in our actions less by reason than instinct. Creatures of impulse, we do unhesitatingly what at the moment it seems good to us to do, without a thought of present results or future consequences. Strangers in the intellectual world—strangers, too, in the world of the affections, when love, which mortals call the "wine of life," exhilarates and blesses, or intoxicates, maddens, and destroys, we live in happy ignorance of sorrow, and sport away our summer-day lives in mirth which disappointment never saddens.

I whispered something of this sort one day to a maiden who sat on the shore of the lake where I was amusing myself with my companions. With a sweet, compassionate smile, as if half pitying me, she said, in a low, musical voice, which sounded like the rippling of the water. "Ah, dear Undine! poor soulless one! One hour of happy human love, is worth a whole eternity of such enjoyment." And by the soft blush which stole over her lovely face, I knew that the cords of her heart had been swept by a skilful hand, and were even then thrilling with the music awakened by that magic touch. Perhaps she was right. I was almost persuaded to

think she was, by what I saw yesterday.—But then I thought of one of our number, whose sad story you have heard, who, in acquiring the ability to love, acquired also the ability to suffer. And I coule not help believing that the love which caused a conscious blush to mantle on the maiden's cheek, and made earth a Paradise which she would hesitate to exchange for Heaven, was after all but a doubtful good. I know it was the crowning bliss of Eden, and even now it has the power to win man back to the very gates of his lost inheritance; but "the trail of the serpent" is upon it, and it cannot bid him enter. Hence it is that scattered all along "the sands of Time" lie the scattered wrecks of barks which once were freighted with the garnered wealth of loving hearts. When I look on these frail ventures, whose owners risked their all and lost it, how can I regret that God has not gifted me with a capacity for loving? Yet there are times when, as I said before, I am almost persuaded that the young girl's words are true. With her, as with the bride of yesterday, the ravishing sweetness of this dream may be rudely broken; but while it lasts, I am compelled to admit that nothing makes men and women so like the angels as happy human love. This is rather a long preamble, dear friend, to the account I propose to give you of a scene of which I was yesterday a delighted spectator. It was a marriage ceremony, as solemn and impressive as the one in Cana of Gallilee which was graced by the presence of the Savior and his disciples. It took place in the parlor of the Glen-Haven Water-Cure, between William L. ChaplinChaplin, William Lawrence

In August 1850 William L. Chaplin (1796-1871) was among a group arrested for aiding fugitive slaves. Originally a lawyer, Chaplin left his legal practice in Easton, Massachusetts, to devote himself to the abolitionist movement in New York in the 1830s. He worked for the Liberty party as a lecturer and editor, becoming an associate of Gerrit Smith. In 1850 Chaplin assisted a group of slaves who had escaped from slave owners Alexander H. Stephens and Robert Toombs. Authorities arrested Chaplin and charged him with violating the Fugitive Slave Act in both Washington, D.C., and Maryland. Three of Chaplin’s longtime New York abolitionist friends, James C. Jackson, Joseph C. Hathaway, and Theodosia Gilbert, rushed to Washington to attend to Chaplin’s needs while jailed. Free Democrat Congressman Joshua Giddings and Senator Salmon P. Chase aided in Chaplin’s legal defense. Opponents of the Fugitive Slave Act, led by Smith, rallied around the case and posted the bond of $25,000 for Chaplin. Back in New York in 1851, Chaplin refused to return south for his trial and worked only briefly to raise funds to reimburse those who stood his bail. He drifted away from Gerrit Smith and, together with Jackson and Hathaway, moved into the Free Democratic camp. Chaplin later married Gilbert and joined Jackson in operating a water cure establishment in Glen Haven, New York. Henry Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 3 vols. (Boston, 1874), 2:80-82; Stanley Harrold, Subversives: Antislavery Community in Washington, D.C., 1826-1865 (Baton Rouge, La., 2003), 157-62; Friedman, Gregarioas Saints, 123; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 290-95; Lawrence J. Friedman, “The Gerrit Smith Circle: Abolitionism in the Burned-Over District,” CWH, 26:19-37 (March 1980).In August 1850 William L. Chaplin (1796-1871) was among a group arrested for aiding fugitive slaves. Originally a lawyer, Chaplin left his legal practice in Easton, Massachusetts, to devote himself to the abolitionist movement in New York in the 1830s. He worked for the Liberty party as a lecturer and editor, becoming an associate of Gerrit Smith. In 1850 Chaplin assisted a group of slaves who had escaped from slave owners Alexander H. Stephens and Robert Toombs. Authorities arrested Chaplin and charged him with violating the Fugitive Slave Act in both Washington, D.C., and Maryland. Three of Chaplin’s longtime New York abolitionist friends, James C. Jackson, Joseph C. Hathaway, and Theodosia Gilbert, rushed to Washington to attend to Chaplin’s needs while jailed. Free Democrat Congressman Joshua Giddings and Senator Salmon P. Chase aided in Chaplin’s legal defense. Opponents of the Fugitive Slave Act, led by Smith, rallied around the case and posted the bond of $25,000 for Chaplin. Back in New York in 1851, Chaplin refused to return south for his trial and worked only briefly to raise funds to reimburse those who stood his bail. He drifted away from Gerrit Smith and, together with Jackson and Hathaway, moved into the Free Democratic camp. Chaplin later married Gilbert and joined Jackson in operating a water cure establishment in Glen Haven, New York. Henry Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 3 vols. (Boston, 1874), 2:80-82; Stanley Harrold, Subversives: Antislavery Community in Washington, D.C., 1826-1865 (Baton Rouge, La., 2003), 157-62; Friedman, Gregarioas Saints, 123; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 290-95; Lawrence J. Friedman, “The Gerrit Smith Circle: Abolitionism in the Burned-Over District,” CWH, 26:19-37 (March 1980). and Theodosia GilbertGilbert, Theodosia

. From a conversation which I accidentally overheard, I learned these facts. It was the wish of Mr. Chaplin and Miss Gilbert to have all their friends present on this

occasion, especially those whom Mr. Chaplin has been the instrument of delivering from a worse than Egyptian bondage. But their name is Legion, and as the house is full of patients, it was impossible to entertain these and others whose long-tried affections gave them a sort of right to witness a ceremony in which Mr. Chaplin had so deep an interest. It became necessary, therefore, to give no invitations. At two o'clock the large family of Dr. Jackson assembled in the parlor, and in a few moments the groom and bride presented themselves. When they had taken their places, Mr. Chaplin said: "My friends, we have come before you to-day to celebrate the marriage rite. In all civilized communities, the outward ceremony is recognized, and it is fit and proper that it should be so. But this ceremonial does not of itself constitute true marriage: if there were nothing more, the outward form would be a mere dead letter. There is a marriage of the soul which must be consummated before these vows are publicly assumed. That marriage we have already realized in some degree by anticipation, and we stand before you now, to take upon ourselves these vows, and solemnly to promise, in the presence of God, that we will perform the duties and meet the responsibilities which they impose with unchanging fidelity and love towards each other." When Mr. Chaplin had ended, prayer was offered by Mr. Joy of Ludlowville. Immediately after, Miss Elizabth J. Smith, on behalf of the "Chaplin Pitcher Committe," presented to Mr. Chaplin a silver pitcher, with these words: "Mr. Chaplin, it gives me great pleasure to have the honor of presenting to you this pitcher, in the name of one thousand of your friends. Accept it with the congratulations and blessings of all who are present, as well as of those who are absent.

And let it ever be a memorial of their confidence and their gratitude to your devotions to the cause of God and of humanity. In the accompanying book you will find recorded the names and residences of the donors." - Mr. Chaplin responded very handsomely, though briefly: "He could not but feel unworthy of such a testimonial; but coming as it did from one thousand of his friends, who thereby signified their approval of an act which had left him in a small minority of his countrymen, he could not express the deep gratitude which he felt towards them. He would make no attempt to justify the act, but he would say that were he placed again in the same circumstances, he would not hesitate a moment to repeat it, though life in the Penitentiary, or death itself were to be the consequence."

Mr. and Mrs. Chaplin then received the congratulations of their friends, and the bell of the steamer "Homer," which lay puffing at the wharf, giving the signal for departure, farewells were spoken, and they left the Glen. I have given you but a faint idea of the impressiveness and beauty of this marriage scene. Its solemnity affected the hearts of all present, and many afterwards remarked that the simple eloquence of Mr. Chaplin would linger in their memory forever.

UndineUndine

The identity of “Undine” is uncertain. Undine is a reference to a type of sea spirit developed during the Renaissance but are in many ways similar to the nymphs and naiads of the Classical era. The idea of the undine was made popular in the early nineteenth century by writers such as Hans Christian Andersen and Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. Theresa Bane, ed., Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2013), 333; Carole G. Silver, Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 91–115. .