Chapter VI: Part 6

"The lectures and papers you have sent have been, and are, the
source of much pleasure to me; and I have given them to some of my
friends, who also seemed pleased with them. I had thought for a
long time that the Unitarian faith would be my idea of true
religion, and now I feel _sure_ of it. I knew nothing about its
creed, or whether it had one, but had had a desire for several
years to know something of it. All my friends and acquaintances
were as ignorant as myself, and the most definite idea I had been
able to gain concerning it was through James Freeman Clarke's
'Self-Culture.' When I found your little notice in the newspaper,
it was just what I most desired. I have always wished to be
religious; but there are things in the Bible which my reason
repels, and the Orthodox way of teaching them became at last so
abhorrent to me that at one time I just gave it all up and ceased
to try to believe any of it; though I am sure I always felt the
beauty of Christianity as taught by Christ, and would be glad now
to be a Christian, if not compelled to believe him the miraculous
Son of God.... We like the 'Register' better and better all the
time, and I have no doubt shall subscribe for it regularly. I
consider it exceedingly high-toned as a moral and religious
teacher, and also in a literary point of view. The sermons and
lectures supply for us a long-felt need. I intend sending a list of
names of friends and acquaintances to the publishers soon. My
sister-in-law has become a convert to the Unitarian faith through
the medium of the 'Register' and the tracts you have sent me from
time to time. She is quite an enthusiast, and feels that
Unitarianism is a great boon and comfort to her now in the midst of
her troubles. [The sister had recently lost her husband.] She, like
myself, could not conscientiously subscribe to the old Orthodox
creeds and requirements, and so remained outside the Church; but
now she feels that she may be a Christian without stultifying her
sense of reason. When she returns home, she expects to subscribe
for the 'Register.'"

After Miss Ellis's death she wrote:--

"I received the memorial of Miss Ellis. I thank you sincerely for
sending it. It is very touching and beautiful, and delineates just
such a character as I conceived hers to be. I had received the sad
intelligence of her death through the 'Christian Register' before
the memorial reached me, and it was like the shock of learning of
the death of a personal friend. I have great reason to be grateful
to her and to cherish her memory; for through her I have been led
to embrace and to love the broad and charitable Unitarian belief.
My reason had struggled for years against the great--to
me--stumbling-blocks of Orthodoxy, and had finally abandoned the
conflict and settled down into a kind of unthinking unbelief,
feeling that it was no use to try to subscribe to any Orthodox
creed, and not knowing where to look for any more hopeful, helpful,
or reasonable spiritual aid. About four years ago, I think it was,
I saw the notice in the paper which is referred to in the memorial,
and Then ensued a very pleasant correspondence ... wrote Miss Ellis
asking for Unitarian papers, etc. much like that with a dear
familiar friend, and she grew to be like one to me, or rather was
that almost from the first. She put so much of her real self into
her letters that they were like a living presence. So full she was
of true Christian love and feeling, so ever ready to forget her
own sorrows and sufferings in her sympathy with the sorrows of
others, that thus unconsciously truth and love and
self-forgetfulness were stamped upon every line that came from her
mind and hand. Truly she was 'A Little Pilgrim,' bearing good
tidings to the fainting and weary, and lifting them up with her own
heavenly strength. Sacred be her memory! Through her I became a
subscriber to the 'Christian Register,' which is to me a standard
of excellence in a religious, moral, and intellectual point of
view. I do not want to be sectarian, as that is not my ideal of a
good Unitarian,--I mean in an 'offensive' light; but it really
seems to me that even Unitarian wit and fun have a refinement and
exquisite touch of humor which cannot be equalled among Orthodox
publications. The 'Register,' however, is the only Unitarian paper
that I am well acquainted with. A widowed sister-in-law who is with
me also became a Unitarian through Miss Ellis. She is a subscriber
to 'The Unitarian.' We also have Channing's Works and the 'Oriental
Christ,' which I bought through Miss Ellis, and some of Freeman
Clarke's books; so that we have the companionship of much of the
best Unitarian thought, although we are denied the privilege of a
personal ministry."

From Springfield, Ohio:--

"I have been greatly benefited by the papers, sermons, etc., you
have so kindly sent me. Hope to have them continued. Will try to
have some Unitarian volumes put in our public library. After
reading the papers I loan them out to others. Some sermons thus
pass into six or eight homes. They set people to thinking. I thank
you, and your good Society, for the broad Christian education you
are giving me. Will do all I can as your missionary here."

Rev. Samuel May, Leicester, Mass., having offered to send his "Register" to some one, Miss Ellis arranged that it should go to the writer of the above, who acknowledged it as follows:--

"Your postal received. I am very grateful for this kindness, and,
as I read the 'Register' this morning, I resolved to use it for
others also.... Can't your Association give the ball a push at this
place?"

The following extract is from the first letter of a new correspondent, dated Dec. 8, 1885. To him was begun the last postal card, which she was unable to finish. She was so eager about it, dictating faster than one could write. "Tell him I think he will like us when he knows us better," she said.

"Your postal came all right, also copies of several tracts, and
specimens of 'Register' and 'Unity.' They are mainly in lines of
thought which I have been working on for some years. I am at one
with the authors in main points, but not prepared to accept all of
the so-called advanced or radical expressions. My own experience,
observation, and reflection seem to show that they have swung too
far from Orthodoxy, and the truth lies between; but I am not fit to
decide yet. From the pamphlet of selections of Channing's writings,
with which I am particularly pleased, I have derived some ideas
which inspire me for a greater activity, and I hope a more
effective activity, in my work of teaching.... I have a friend who
also feels dissatisfied with current Orthodoxy. If you see fit, I
wish you to send him some of those tracts. I wish to use my copies
here, or I would send them."

The estimation in which Miss Ellis was held by some of her fellow-workers appears in the following extracts from letters and papers.

At the conclusion of a letter, a part of which is given elsewhere, Rev. A. A. Livermore, President of Meadville Theological School, says:--

"But though disinterested and devoted to family interests and
helpful to the growing households of her brothers and sisters, the
crowning interest that came to absorb and inspire her advanced
Christian life was the propagation of her own Unitarian faith,
early learned, later disciplined, and mellowed and sanctified by
trial and years. What had been a stay and staff to her own mind and
heart she was anxious to communicate to others. Hence she sought
the instrumentalities of the pen and press, and the Post Office
Mission sprang into being,--the invention of a Christian woman's
heart, bent on doing good spiritually. The zeal, fidelity,
sympathy, and adaptation with which she developed and pursued this
work have been told elsewhere. It is another lesson to teach us
that ever new means will arise, as time and opportunity serve, for
the faithful in heart and life to hasten the coming of the Master's
kingdom of righteousness and love. Miss Ellis infused a sweetness
and sympathy all her own into her mission. To her it was no task,
but a delight, as her letters show,--her meat and drink to help
struggling souls to light and Christian faith. Peace to her
beautiful and saintly memory!"

* * * * *

(From Rev. S. J. Barrows, editor "Christian Register.")

A CANDLE OF THE LORD.

It was a feeble socket that held it. It was a constant surprise
that so small a candle could give forth so much light. But its
special mission was not so much to illumine the world with its own
light as it was to ignite other minds and hearts from its own
flame. "Behold how much wood is kindled by how small a fire!" says
the apostle. Nothing is small, it has been said, which is great in
its consequences. It does not need a stroke of lightning from
heaven to raze Chicago to the ground: a little lamp-flame near a
pile of hay is sufficient. We forget sometimes the power of a
single humble life to extend and duplicate its influence. We have
never learned yet how far the little candle can throw its beams,
when its waves of light and heat come in contact with minds and
hearts that are prepared for the illumination it may give. The wire
and the battery have not entirely superseded the torch-bearer. The
lamps in the house may have been filled, the gas may be ready to
turn on; what is needed is for some one to go about with match or
torch or candle, and tip the burner with its flame.

So, as we have said, it was the mission of this candle of the Lord
to ignite other minds and hearts. She had discovered that the vast
system of intercommunication established by the post-office might
be used for moral as well as for commercial means. In connection
with a faithful co-worker, she devoted herself to the dissemination
of kindling literature. Set like a luminous panel amid a great wall
of advertisements was a brief notice, in some of the large Western
dailies, that those who wished Liberal religious literature might
have it for the asking, and by sending to the Cincinnati Post
Office Mission. In the columns of this paper, from time to time, we
have shown what a wide-spread influence these little notices had.
They opened avenues of communication to many hungry souls. The
confidence of many in doubt and perplexity was secured. The lady
who was called to this special work had a keen intuition as to what
was needed in each special case. It was not only that she sent the
right tracts and the right books, and thus set up guide-posts for
groping men and women; not less prized by many of her
correspondents was the simple, earnest faith and cordial sympathy
which she expressed in her own letters. Many are grateful to her
for pointing out the way and giving the right impulse at the right
time. Prevented by deafness from taking an active part in social
intercourse, she yet found an opportunity to unstop the deaf ears
of others and to open their blind eyes. In this Post Office Mission
work was a channel for her faithful and consecrated endeavors.

We cannot estimate the radiating influence of such a life. Its
quickening flame has gone from heart to heart, and it is destined
to go still further. Her devoted example has given an impulse to
many other women in the Unitarian body, who are sowing in the same
field the seed for an abundant harvest. It is now seen that this
diffusion of our literature is one of the mightiest means for
propagating our faith. If such a devoted woman, working
independently, could accomplish so much, how much more might be
effected by thorough organizations and wide co-operation for the
same purpose!

Her best monument will be the prosecution and extension of the work
to which she gave her life. It was but a pair of lines in the
"Deaths" of the last week's "Register" which told that the candle
had gone out, but its flame is still propagated in the lives it has
served to kindle. The great work of her life was done far beyond
the circle of her immediate influence; and there are many who have
never seen her in the flesh, who will still feel that the name of
Sarah Ellis represents an abiding spiritual reality.

* * * * *

(From Rev. George A. Thayer in "Unity," Jan. 23, 1886.)

SARAH ELLIS.

Sarah Ellis, the faithful organizer of the Cincinnati Post Office
Mission, and the pioneer in that admirable form of the ministry of
Unitarian doctrine through the writing of letters and the
circulation of religious literature, "went up higher" from her
sick-bed, on Sunday evening, December 27. There are many, East and
West, to whom her wise guidance in spiritual perplexities has been
as a strong hand lifting them from confusion and doubt concerning
all religion, into tranquil joy, who will read that she is dead,
with the shock which comes with an unforewarned calamity. For
almost up to her last hour she was carrying on her correspondence
with the wide circle of men and women to whom she periodically sent
glad tidings of a reasonable faith, and never giving intimation to
the most regular of these correspondents that she was any less
vigorous of health than usual. For many months her friends had seen
the end approaching, and very likely she herself had understood
that "the task was great, the day short, and it was not incumbent
upon her to complete the work." But her inexorable conscience,
blended with her delight in having found at last, within this
recent five years, a work needing to be done, and calling into use
her store of admirable wisdom for such business, kept her at her
duty until the body ceased to obey the will.

Only the people who knew Miss Ellis well could understand her rare
fitness for her office, through long and ripe study of Unitarian
religious literature, and through her genius for apprehending at
once what special reading and counsel her various applicants for
light upon their darkened ways of the spirit needed to
receive,--only those to whom she spoke the word in season, or those
nearer home to whom she was a quiet exemplar in holy things, can
appreciate the quality of virtue enclosed in that fragile and
infirm body, which shines on earth only "in minds made better by
its presence," but shines with renewed honor elsewhere in the house
of many mansions.

* * * * *

It was not my good fortune to know Miss Ellis personally, but her
works have praised her East as well as West. Her death is a great
calamity to the cause, as well as a great sorrow to her friends;
but she has put life and power into a good instrument of influence,
and it will live.

REV. GRINDALL REYNOLDS,

_Secretary American Unitarian Association, Boston, Mass._

* * * * *

LEICESTER, Mass, April 10, 1886.

... Her communications made no mention of her infirmities or
illness; and her death was a great surprise. I had become quite
interested in her manner of doing her work; the perfect
intelligence, good sense, and self-reliance she manifested.-----of
Springfield, Ohio, has written to me in the highest appreciation of
her helpfulness to him.... I enclose three of her postal cards,
which, if quite convenient, may come back to me. [On one of these
postal cards Mr. May has indorsed, "Miss Ellis lived but about a
month after this was written. Her death was a great and immediate
loss to the cause of a wise and large Christian faith in the
West."] She was eminently worthy of a special commemoration and
canonization.

Respectfully yours, Samuel J. May.

* * * * *

I have thought of you often since the "Christian Register" brought
the news of Miss Ellis's death, and am moved to express my sympathy
for the loss you have met,--a loss which all of us share indeed. I
suppose it was very good to _her_ to be summoned from a state of
feebleness; but it will not be easy, I believe, to fill the vacant
place. Perhaps her own inspiration will rest upon her successor,
and so she will indeed help to carry on the work which she has done
so beautifully.

I suppose the time will come, some day, when the loss of a good
worker in our Conference will not be felt so seriously as now; but
we are far too few as yet.

MISS ABBY W. MAY,

_President Women's Auxiliary Conference, Boston, Mass._

* * * * *

Though I had had but comparatively little correspondence with Miss
Ellis, that little had made me regard her as a personal friend, and
I felt especially drawn towards her after I learned about her
deafness, for that was my own mother's trial for many years. It is
a comfort to think that all suffering and weakness are over for
her; and so we can but rejoice that she has entered upon the
blessed life, although the feeling of loss must be very great. I
have thought often of Mr. Beach's sudden death last summer, during
the last few weeks, and I was glad to tell our friends, at the
meeting the other day, of Miss Ellis's tender, helping sympathy for
his mother and sisters at that time. I think one can hardly help
feeling that perhaps Miss Ellis and the young friend whom she had
led to a bright and happy faith may already have met and rejoiced
together in the heavenly life. Much sympathy has been expressed
here for Miss Ellis's father. I hope that the thought of all that
she has gained is a constant comfort and help to him.

MRS. J. I. W. THACHER,

_Secretary Women's Auxiliary Conference, Boston, Mass._

* * * * *

The news of Miss Ellis's departure from among us filled us all with
grief and regret; and yet we feel she is so sure to continue her
good work there, that we ought not to _regret_. What a delightful
awakening for her when, with no feeling of weakness or pain, she
opens her eyes to find herself surrounded by those who have gone
before, whose lives she had gladdened here, and to learn that part
of her mission there is to meet and welcome her host of friends,
personal and parochial, as they follow her over there! How many
people will miss her here! Ten times one is ten. Their number
cannot be estimated.

MISS F. LE BARON,

_Sec. Western Women's Unitarian Conf., Chicago, Ill._

* * * * *

I want to express my great sympathy for you and your Society in the
loss of your friend Miss Ellis.

Although I knew she had been an invalid for a long time, the news
of her death was a great shock to me. She has been so kind in
helping me to get started in the Post Office Mission, and made me
feel so truly that she stood ready to help always, that I cannot
but feel that I have in her death lost a good friend, which must be
the case with many others all over the country. She has left us all
the memory of a brave example, which ought to fill us with the
desire to carry on the good work by her begun, more faithfully than
ever.

MISS ELLEN M. GOULD,

_Sec. Post Office Mission Committee, Davenport, Ia._

* * * * *

I have just heard of the death of Miss Ellis. How great a loss it
is to all of us, but how great a _gain_ to all of us that she has
lived, and illustrated the possibilities of a life lived under even
so many limitations as hedged her about! Will you not send me a
sketch of her life and work for the next number of the "Unitarian"?

MISS ELIZA R. SUNDERLAND,

_Assistant Editor "Unitarian," Chicago, Ill._

* * * * *

I had heard from time to time that she was feeble, but her fragile
frame held so strong a spirit, that I hoped she would triumph over
bodily weakness for many years to come. The world can ill spare
such as she. Each time I saw her I was impressed more and more with
the strength of her character and the clearness and directness of
her mind. Upon meeting a stranger of whom one has heard much there
is almost always a little period of bewilderment before the ideal
and real can be harmonized, even where there is not disappointment;
and at first I was at a loss how to reconcile the strong,
well-balanced mind, with its keen insight,--as revealed in her
letters,--with the delicate, dainty, sweet-looking little woman,
shut out from her kind to so great a degree by her affliction. Yet
when her tiny hand grasped mine so firmly at our first meeting,
there was that in the clasp that reconciled and united my ideal
with the actual; they were only two sides of the same nature. She
was so strong, too, in being so genuine and so full of faith. In
these halting, doubting times, a faith in the eternal verities so
strong and unwavering as hers is like a rock to many a tossed and
uncertain soul. Such people do not know their own power of helping.
I can never refrain from questioning _why_ those who are so needed
in the world must be taken, when the useless and worthless are
left, unless it is that they go that they may leave the _spirit_ of
their service to do a larger work as a heritage to all who will
accept it. Though dead, they speak with many tongues.

MISS FRANCES L. ROBERTS,

_Ex-Sec. Western Women's Unitarian Conf., Chicago, Ill._

* * * * *

A Union Meeting of the Women's Auxiliary Conference for Suffolk
County, which includes all the branches of the Conference in the
Unitarian churches of Boston, was held at Arlington Street Church
on Thursday, Jan. 21, 1886.

At this meeting was officially announced, with the most profound
regret, the death of Miss Ellis, of Cincinnati. A brief account of
her life in connection with the work of the Conference was given by
Mrs. J. I. W. Thacher, Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells, and Miss Abby W.
May, and it was unanimously agreed that there should be entered on
the records of the meeting, and transmitted to the friends of Miss
Ellis, an expression of our fullest appreciation of her beautiful
and self-sacrificing character, our high estimation of the work in
which she had already accomplished so much, and our deep and
earnest sympathy for those who have suffered an irreparable loss.
Our sorrow is not without the hope that the tender memory of a life
so pure and unselfish, and such earnest devotion to all the
principles of our religious faith, may influence for good the lives
of each and all of us, and prove an incentive to every member of
our Conference to further activity in the work we are trying to do.

EMILY A. FIFIELD, _Director_.

_For the Suffolk County Branches of the Women's Auxiliary Conference._

* * * * *

PORTLAND, ME., Jan. 17, 1886.

MRS. FAYETTE SMITH, Director of Women's Conference:

At a recent meeting of the Portland branch of the Women's Auxiliary
Conference, an article in the "Christian Register," entitled "A
Candle of the Lord," was read; and on motion of Mrs. Dr. J. T.
Gilman, the Secretary was requested to express to your Conference
the sympathy of our little band in the death of Miss Sarah Ellis.
While we cannot have the sense of personal loss that you feel in
the extinguishment of that light, we have the highest admiration
for the work she accomplished under such limitations, and trust
that her example will be an incentive to every Unitarian woman to
do something to continue it, till the flame she kindled may become
a glorious light, glowing in every hamlet of our common country.

Very truly, MARY R. MCINTIRE.

TO THE WOMEN'S CONFERENCE, CINCINNATI, OHIO..

* * * * *

57 HAWLEY ST., SYRACUSE, N.Y., Feb. 7, 1886.

DEAR MRS. SMITH,--As I have had the pleasure of a little
correspondence with dear Miss Ellis, our Society have asked me to
express to you our deep sympathy in your loss. She must have been a
remarkable woman to have accomplished so much when so feeble. Her
warm heart spoke plainly in her letters, and we shall regret more
and more, as time passes, that we shall receive them no more. Let
us believe that her freed spirit is not far off, but is still
interested, and far more able to help in the work she loved so
well. Her sphere is only larger. Our branch of the Woman's
Auxiliary Conference resolved to incorporate in its minutes a
resolution of regret at her death, and sympathy with you, and to
preserve the "In Memoriam" you so kindly sent, among its papers.
Please accept our warmest sympathy and expression of interest.

Yours sincerely, FRANCES J. MYERS.

_For the Syracuse Branch of the Women's Auxiliary Conference._

The Post Office Mission Committee at Davenport, Iowa, at their meeting Feb. 10, also took formal action upon the death of Miss Ellis, and sent expressions of "heartfelt regrets and sympathy" to the Cincinnati Society.

CHICAGO, March 29, 1886.

A part of Thursday afternoon, May 13, will be given to the Women's
Conference, and occupied with election of officers and report of
Post Office Mission work. It seems very appropriate that something
should be said at that time in memory of Miss Ellis; and Miss Le
Baron and I request that you prepare the paper or remarks and
present them.... We leave the form of the memorial entirely to your
judgment.

MRS. E. A. WEST,

_Pres. Western Women's Unitarian Conf., Chicago, Ill._

In accordance with this request, Mrs. George Thornton, of
Cincinnati, read the following memorial before the Western Women's
Unitarian Conference, May 13, 1886:--

Such an occasion as this, full of words of good counsel and
cheer,--a reunion of the little band of women workers in the cause
of Liberal Christianity,--will be incomplete if we do not mention
one name, held in loving remembrance in the hearts of many here
present, and of a still greater number scattered far and wide,
whose lives have been touched to higher issues by the active
ministrations of our beloved co-worker, Miss Sallie Ellis, who has
laid down her work on earth and passed on to the great Hereafter.

When we recall the fragile form, so full of the Spirit's life,
which, rising above the many disabilities of physical suffering,
accomplished so much in the brief years allotted her, we take
courage, and thank God that we have had such spirits with us.
Nothing doubting that their work continues here and elsewhere,
though we know neither the manner nor conditions of its progress.

We who are cheered in moments of sorrow by the great faith that the
future of those who have passed behind "the veil which hath no
outward swing" will be but a continuance of the _best_, under
nobler conditions, rejoice, even in the midst of personal
bereavement, that Miss Ellis has entered into that rest, so nobly
won by her patient endurance of the heavy burdens laid upon
her,--burdens which yet never seemed to close her sympathy for
others, but only served to quicken her eagerness to work for the
extension of that vital faith she found so satisfying.

It is to her warm heart, and earnest desire to help others in the
midst of spiritual difficulties, that we owe the unique but most
efficacious method of reaching such through the medium of postal
communication.

Scientists tell us that each wavelet of sound, produced by the
tiniest cause, goes on in ever-widening circles of ether, to the
uttermost limits of creation. Had we but senses acute enough to
receive the sensation, how full of pulsing sound would all Nature
become! It seems to me that this keener sense, enabling her to
catch the questionings of troubled souls, became one of the great
compensations of Miss Ellis's later years. As the outer organs of
hearing became dulled to what was passing around her, the inner or
spiritual became more observant; and as we listened to the
correspondence which came to her from North and South, East and
West, from the home and the camp, from the teacher and the taught,
we seemed to stand in some great whispering-gallery, echoing with
the sighs and anxious inquiries of seekers after truth who sought
aid in solving the great problems of the soul's life. As from time
to time came back acknowledgments of gratitude for aid rendered,
either by her sympathizing letters or the Liberal literature which
she widely disseminated, we realized what a great lever had been
applied in this simple way to the spiritual needs of many.

It is in this phase of Miss Ellis's work that she has become better
known to the members of the Women's Auxiliary Conference; and it is
of this especially I have spoken to-day.

But the roots of this activity lie deeper, and this work was but
the fruitage of a life which drew its strength to suffer and
endure, as well as to labor and to wait, from those fountains of a
rational faith for whose extension we have met here this week.

To her it was the manna of life, and it was fitting that her last
years should have been spent in unselfish endeavor to extend its
influence.

Knowing how heartily she would have entered into the spirit of our
meetings during this Conference, we cannot leave unsaid the word of
tender remembrance which links her memory indissolubly with the
work of our Women's Auxiliary Conference. The little band who are
engaged in spreading the light of a higher faith, in lifting the
load of crude ideas in regard to our relations to God and humanity,
may surely feel that though our friend "has joined the choir
invisible," yet her work "lives on in lives made better by her
presence," still keeping alive the union with us who remain
behind,--a help and incentive to continued progress.

No better key-note of Miss Ellis's life can be given than in the
words of a poem copied by her into her diary, January, 1881. It
was taken from the "Woman's Journal," and was entitled:--

ACHIEVEMENT.

Nothing noble, nothing great
The world has ever known,
But began a seed of thought
In some generous nature sown.

Any soul may rise to be
A new saviour to its race;
Every man and woman fills,
Well or ill, a prophet's place.

In our Now the Then lies folded,
All its wealth, and all its power;
From the promise of to-day
Bursts to-morrow's perfect flower.

Every deed of solid worth
Helps the world to find its place;
Every life of homely truth
Raises higher all the race.

"Ye are gods," the Scriptures saith;
"Yea," our spirits make reply;
Let us claim our birthright, then,--
Prove our high divinity.

We too may be, if we will,
Athlete winners every one,
Conquerors of fate and chance,
Lords of all beneath the sun.

Let us thitherward aspire,
Take whate'er we find to do,
Making life what life was meant--
Something liberal, earnest, true!

* * * * *

University Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge.

End of Project Gutenberg's Miss Ellis's Mission, by Mary P. Wells Smith