A WONDERFUL year was 1843. Father Miller's pro-
phetic calculations had created a vast expectation that it
would be the year of the final conflagration. His confi-
dent followers had their ascension-robes ready; and
outside multitudes saw the approach of that year with
an uneasy impression that the advent of Christ, or
something equally awful, was about to make an end of
the world.

And indeed tremendous events did come in 1843.
If Father Miller and his followers had been discerning
and humble enough to have accepted a spiritual fulfill-
ment of their prophecies, they might have escaped the
mortification of a total mistake as to the time. The
events that came were these:

The Anti-slavery movement, which for twelve years
had been gathering into itself all minor reforms and firing
the northern heart for revolution, came to its climax in
the summer of 1843, in a rush of one hundred National
Conventions! At the same time Brisbane had every
thing ready for his great socialistic movement, and
in the autumn of 1843 the flood of Fourierism broke
upon the country. Anti-slavery was destructive; Fou-
rierism professed to be constructive. Both were ram-

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