160 YEARS AGO: New York Freedman’s Relief Association—A few ladies in Cooperstown have done something through this organization for the relief of suffering in the South...…

185 YEARS AGO: Dr. Channing on Poetry—Poetry far from injuring society, is one of the great instruments of refinement and exaltation. It lifts the mind above ordinary life, gives it a respite from depressed cares, and awakens the consciousness of its efficacy with what is pure and noble. In its legitimate and highest efforts, it has the same tendency and aim with Christianity; that is to spiritualize our nature. Poetry has a natural alliance with our best affections. Its great tendency and purpose is to carry the mind beyond and above the beaten, dusty, weary walks of ordinary life, to lift it into a purer element, and to breathe into it more profound and generous emotions. It reveals to us the loveliness of nature, and brings back the freshness of early feelings, revives the relish of simple pleasures, keeps unquenched the enthusiasm which warmed the springtime of our being, refines youthful love, strengthens our interest in human nature, vividly delineates tender and lofty feelings, expands our sympathies over all classes of society, knits us by new ties with universal being, and through the brightness of its prophetic visions, helps faith lay hold on the future life. December 14, 1840…