r LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 000135^,0523 tf LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, iljrajt. Ijjpijngft T$a. . Shelf . : t..l£.: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. BOOKS BY JULIA WARD HOWE From the Oak to the Olive A Plain Record of a Pleasant Journey . . . $2.00 Later Lyrics Containing Poems of the War — Lyrics of the Street — Parables — Poems of Study and Experience, etc $2.00 Lee and Shepard Publishers Boston THE Julia Ward Howe Birthday Book SELECTIONS FROM HER WORKS Arranged and edited by her daughter Laura E. Richards BOSTON, 1SS9 LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS 10 mit.k Btbert, next "Old south Meeting-House" NEW YORK: CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM 718 AM> 720 I! Ili>Al>WAY << Copyright, iSSS, by Lee and Shepard The Julia Ward Howe Bikthdav Book 3¥3// PRESS OF $otktocU anb Cfcurcfcill THE WORD Had I one of the words, my Master, With a spirit and tone of thine, I Mould run to the farthest Indies To scatter the joy divine. I would waken the frozen ocean With a billowy burst of joy; Stir the ships at their grim ice-moorings The summer passes by. I would enter court and hovel, Forgetful of mien or dress, With a treasure that all should ask for, An errand that all should bless. 1 seek for thy words, my Master, With a spelling vexed and slow; With scanty illuminations, And an alphabet of woe. but while I am searching, scanning A lesson none ask to hear, My life writetb out thy sentence Divinely just and clear. JANUARY January ist. First in the glories of thy front Let the crown jewel Truth be found ! Our Country January 2d. For the brave world is given to us P\;r all the brave in heart to keep, Lest wicked hands should sow the thorns That bleeding generations reap. From Newport to Rome. January 30. Who sows in tears his early years May bind the golden sheaves; Who scatters flowers in summer bowers Shall reap but their withered leaves. Mortal and Immortal. January ist. January 2d. January 3D. January 4th. Happy season of youth, which can find nothing more reverend than its possibilities, more glorious than its un- wasted powers ! — Let us have young people to take our work when we leave it, laughing at our limitations, and excelling us with noble strides: to pause some day, and remember our lessons, and weep over our pains, not the less, O God, of the future, surpassing us ! From the Oak to the Olive. London. January 5TH. There's a flag hangs over my threshold, whose folds are more dear to me Than the blood that thrills in my bosom its earnest of liberty : And dear are the stars it harbors in its sunny field of blue, As the hope of a further heaven, that lights all our dim lives through. The Flag. January 6th. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord : He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored : He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword ; His truth is marching on. Battle-Hymn of the Republic. 8 January 4th. January 5™. January 6th. January 7th. I have sung to lowly hearts Of their own music, only deeper; I have flung through the dusty road Shining seeds for the unknown reaper. Salutatory January 8th. The full outpouring of power that stops at no frontier, But follows I would with I can, and / can with I do it ! Wherefore. January 9TH. The little Puritan children grew up, it is true, in the presence of a standard of character and of conduct which must have seemed severe to them. The results of such training have shown the world that the child so circum- stanced will rise to the height of his teaching. Started on a solid and worthy plane of thought and motive, he will not condescend to what is utterly mean, base and trivia], either in motive or in act. If, as may happen, he fails in his first encounter with outside temptation, he will never- theless severely judge his own follies, and will one day set himself to retrieve them with earnest diligence. Margaret Fuller. 10 January 7th. January 8th. January 9TH. «i January ioth. Methinks that there should be no death; For all that liveth hath the breath Of One who cannot die. The robes of glory He hath worn Are never thrown aside in scorn, But lovingly laid by. The Dying Rose. January iith. Oh ! life is strange, and full of change, But it brings me little sorrow; For I came to the world but yesterday, And I shall go hence to-morrow. Mortal an6 Immortal. January 12th. A thousand loves, and only one shall stand To show us what its counterfeits should be : The blossoms of a spring-tide, and but one Bear the world's fruit — the seed of History To tiik Critic January ioth. January iith, January 12th. January 13TH. Naked and poor thou goest, Philosophy ! Thy robe of serge hath lain beneath the stars; Thy weight of tresses, ponderously free, Of iron hue, no golden circlet bars. Philosophy January 14TH. The flowers have a dark, sad mother, Whose bosom is bare to view, So they haste, in their spring-tide beauty, To clothe her warm heart anew. They perish; but she endureth, To faint in the Winter's scorn, With a life-warmth buried within her Through which other Springs are born. Servant to a Wooden Cradle. January 15TH. Childhood, indeed, insists upon having the whole heav- enly life unpacked upon the spot. Its to-day knows no to-morrow. Hence its common impatience and almost inevitable quarrel with the older generation, which in its eyes represents privation and correction. Margaret Fuller. 14 January 13TH. January 14.TH. January 15TH. January i6th. Since, while Love is treasure-holder, Sorrow must be king. Parables. January 17TH. For gentle souls must keep their bounds, Nor rudely snatch at bliss, The very sun would lose his light In giving it amiss. Blushes. January i8th. With fuller power, let each avow The kinship of his human blood; With fuller pulse, let every heart Swell to high pangs of brotherhood ! From Newport to Rome. 16 January i6th. January 17TH. January i8th. *7 January 19TH. Think'st thou thy work at end, and thy discipline perfect ? Other pangs still remain, other labors and sorrows; Other the crisis of Fate than the crisis of Being. Let me round my words with one brief admonition : Take for the bearings of life, thine own or another's, This motto, blazoned on cross and on altar : " God's Patience ! " Wherefore. January 2oth. Living souls are not like trees That strongest and stateliest shoot alone. Salutatory. January 21st. And in England the past and the present will yet have some awkward controversies to settle; for the small island cannot always have room for both, and to cramp and crowd the one for the heraldic display of the other will not be good housekeeping, according to the theories of to- day. From the Oak to the Olive. 18 January 19TH. January 2oth. January 2ist. 19 January 22D. I would I might approach thee, As the moon draws near the cloud, With still and stately courtesy, Clear-eyed and solemn-browed : But, when their meeting comes, her face In his deep breast doth hide, The heavens are still in solemn joy, The world is glorified. Wishes. January 23D. Love has neither past nor future Till then break its awful vow; Neither was nor shall be blessed: It is one eternal Now. Studies. January 24.TH. Oh ! never read to-day, Oh ! stretching far away Where stars revolve and burn — The lessons of the free, The good that is to be, My children, wait to learn. 1S30-1S53. 20 January 22D. January 23D. January 24.TH. January 25TH. I love the woman with the woman's heart, Giving, not gathering — shedding light abroad As the man glooms it in, for midnight toil. Of Woman. January 26th. And here we may say, her kingdom was not all of this world : for the kingdom of noble thought and affection is in this world, and beyond it, and the rich and ideal are at peace within its bounds. Margaret Fuller. January 27TH. My country, let no hoary lie for refuge come to you ! The things that were have had their day : the things that are, are true. While women kiss the jewelled hand, and praise the broid- ered hem, Let man bring back the heart of Christ, that lives for us and them. Perugia. 22 January 25TH. January 26th. January 27TH. 23 January 28th. If sin and the senses blind thee, Thyself must endure the pain; If the arrows of conscience rind thee, Thou must conquer thy peace again. Without and Within. January 29TH. In the house of labor best Can I build the house of rest. The House of Rest. January 30TH. Ah ! sisters, but your framed speech comes well To help the woman's standard, now unfurled ; In carpet council ye may win the day; But keep your limits ! — do not rule the world. Ye're all my betters, — one in brevity more, And one in sharpness of the wit and tongue, And one in trim, decorous piety, And one with arts and graces ever young. But will I thank my father's sober house Where shallow judgment had no leave to be ; And hurrying years, that, stripping much beside, Turned as they fled, and left me charity. The Tea Party. 24 January 28th. January 29TH. January 30TH, January 31ST. Around one infinite intent All power and inspiration move, Thrilling with light the firmament, Lifting the heart of man with love. Kosmos. 26 JANUARY 3 1 ST. 27 FEBRUARY February ist. Ere this mystery of Life, Solving, scatter its form to air, Let me feel that I have lived In the music of a prayer. In the joy of generous thought, Quickening, enkindling soul from soul; In the rapture of deeper Faith Spreading its solemn, sweet control. Salutatory February 2d. The sigh for that we might have been, The lonely grief for that we are. Among the Ruins of Ostia. February 3D. Whether a present grief ye weep, Or yet untasted blisses, Look for the balm that comes with tears, The bane that lurks in kisses. Behind the Veil. 30 February ist. February 2D. February 3D. February 4th. And here I have clearly got hold of one feature of modern society; this is, that everything is everywhere. The Zulus are in London, the Londoners in Zululand. Empress Eugenie, the exploded star of French fashion in its highest supremacy, visits Cape Town. The Stars and Stripes protect American professors on the shores of the Bosphorus, within view of Mount Lebanon. It would not surprise us to learn that a party of our countrymen had read the Declaration of Independence beside the Pools of Solomon, or within the desolate heart of Moab. Modern Society. February 5TH. The sweet moon rules the east to-night, To show the sun she, too, can shine — From his forsaken cell of night She builds herself a jewelled shrine. My Seaward Window. February 6th. Friendships fragile and diurnal I have wrought me in my time. Out of sympathies most vernal, Dreams that charm Life's childish journal, Images of loves eternal Broken in the play of Time. Correspondence. 32 February 4th. February 5TH. February 6th. 33 February 7th. Bind not the giant of the soul By bootless vows to wear a chain, Whose narrow fetters, pressing close, Its nobler growth shall rend in twain. Entbehren, February 8th. On single souls, one at a time, she laid her detaining grasp, and asked what they could receive and give. Something noble she must perceive in them before she would condescend to this parley. She did hot insist that her friends should possess genius; but she could only make friends of those who, like herself, were seekers after the higher life. Worthiness of object commended even mediocrity to her ; but shallow worldliness awakened her contempt. Margaret Fuller. February 9TH. The eagle's wing outstrips the car of Morn; The lark laughs back the eagle's flight to scorn. " Soarest thou sunward? here I poise and sing, And set the heart of heaven a-fluttering." My Lecture. 34 February jtr. February 8th. February 9TH. 35 February ioth. Seeking the boasting, the tinsel, the racket, Little thoulearn'st Life's miraculous art; Let the gold rather flow out of thy pocket ! Then may the mercy flow into thy heart. The Moderate Man. February iith. The helpful things and the hurtful Weave round thee their waiting spell : Oh ! look to the God that commands them, And all shall be suffered well. Servant to a Wooden Cradle. February 12th. The richest human treasury, The mine of thought, to all is free. Meditation. 36 February ioth. February iith February 12th. 37 February 13TH. All that the future darkly holds, All the sepulchral past unfolds; All that this hour must be; The soul that seeks in Him its sun, The flower whose little race is run, All things that He hath made, are one With His eternity. The Dying Rose. February 14.TH. Any human life is liable to be modified by the supposi- tion that its results are of great interest to some one whose concern in them is not a selfish one. Where this supposi- tion is verified by corresponding acts, the power of the individual is greatly multiplied. This merciful, this provi- dential interest Margaret felt for each of her many friends. There was no illusion in the sense of her value which they, all and severally, entertained. Margaret Fuller. February 15TH. Best thoughts should rule in kingdom as in breast; And God's compulsive working aids the best. My Lecture. 38 February 13TH. February 14.TH. February 15TH. 39 February i6th. And that high suffering which we dread A higher joy discloses; Men saw the thorns on Jesu's brow, But angels saw the roses. Behind the Veil. February 17TH. No gift can make rich those who are poor in wisdom. Modern Society. February i8th. Of this we become sure : religion spiritualizes, inspires, and consoles us. The strait gate and narrow path are blessed for all who find them, and are the same for all who seek them. But this oneness of morals is learned experimentally ; it cannot be taught dogmatically. From the Oak to the Olive. 40 February i6th. February 17TH. February i8th. 4» February 19TH. O Future ! what sorrows gather In the folds of thy hanging veil? O Past ! shalt thou flower further In passions comprest and pale? O thou who art past and future, Thou Present of life and soul ! We lift our sad eyes to thy features, Our thoughts to thy great control. Servant to a Wooden Cradle. February 2oth. God's hand can bring unheard-of gifts to light From Fate's deep sea. The Lost Jewel. February 2ist. See ! the fierce charioteer of Day Drives to the wave his smoking steeds : The world may breathe, the tyrant drops The lash, the slave no longer bleeds. And soft the pious Evening steals To watch her fiery father's rest; A whispered " Ave ! " seems her voice, And one pure gem hangs on her breast. Among the Ruins of Ostia. 42 February 19TH. February 2oth. February 2ist. 43 February 22D. Washington ! thou art set as a symbol of greatness, Of courage that boasts not, of honor that knows not temp- tation. Thee all men praise — not a town in thy multiplied country That hath not thy name and thy bust for its empty Val- halla. The Sermon of Spring. February 23D. The first stage of culture is cultivation, and the art lovers of that day (forty years ago) had sowed the seed of care- ful study, and were intent upon its growth and ripening. If possession is nine points of the law, as it is acknowl- edged to be, the knowledge of values may be said to be nine points of possession, and Margaret and her friends, with their knowledge of the import of art, and with their trained and careful observation of its outward forms, had a richer feast in the casts and engravings of that time than can be enjoyed to-day by the amateur, who, with a bric- a-brac taste and blase feeling, haunts the picture-shops of our large cities, or treads the galleries in which the majestic ghosts of earnest times rebuke his flippant frivolity. Margaret Fuller. February 24TH. Love flashed a promise that Life never knew. At a Corner. 44 February 22D. February 23D. February 24.TH. 45 February 25TH. All forms are shadows, shadow-like pass by. The love that is our Being cannot die. My Lecture. February 26th. In the deep sanctuary of sheltering night, Kept by the angels of the stars serene, The merest hireling holds his vested right — Mourner, slave, culprit, lose from thought and sight The weight of grief that shall be or hath been. The Death of the Slave Lewis. February 27TH. Keep but heart and healthful courage. Keep the ship against the sea ! In my Valley. 46 February 25TH. February 26th. February 27TH. 47 February 28th. Now, indeed, we ought to be able to choose the best out of the best, since the whole is laid in order before us. But the chronic trouble hangs upon us still. Had we but such wisdom to chose as we have chance to see ! The gifts of our future are still shown us in sealed caskets. Which of these conceals the condition of our true happiness? The leaden one, surely, of which we distrust the dull exterior, trusting in the inner brightness which it covers. Modern Society. 48 February 25th. 49 MARCH March ist. Methinks we will not mourn again, Nor murmur, while life's varied chain Our Father's glory showeth : The blessedness that we have known, The tears that we have wept alone, Gather like incense round the throne Of Him who all things knoweth. The Dying Rose. March 2d. A prince of puppets is not a prince, but a puppet; a su- perfluous duke is no dux; a titular count does not count. Dresses, jewels, and equipages of tasteless extravagance; the sickly smile of disdain for simple people; the clinging together, by turns eager and haughty, of a clique that be- comes daily smaller in intention, and whose true decline consists in its numerical increase, — do not dream that these lift you in any true way or in any true sense. For Italians to believe that it does, is natural ; for Englishmen to be- lieve it, is discreditable; for Americans, disgraceful. From the Oak to the Olive. March 3D. Delights to kindred pangs their sharpness owe, Dews to the desert, evergreens to snow; When wasted Life grows valueless and vain, Men needs must suffer to enjoy again. My Lecture. 52 March ist. March 2d. March 3D. 53 March 4th. So, Soul, be steadfast in thy lot, In marble shade or rustic cot. Permit the wealth the Fates bestow, But in its void no pining know ! Meditation. March 5TH. Though Jesus, alas ! is as little understood in doctrine as followed in example. For he has hitherto been like a beautiful figure set to point out a certain way, and people at large have been so entranced with worshipping the figure, that they have neglected to follow the direction it indicates. From the Oak to the Olive. March 6th. " I am only a woman ! " was a remark often heard in that day, as in this, from women to whom that " only " was not to be permitted. Only the guardian of the beginning of life; only the sharer in all its duties and inspirations? Culture and Christianity recognized as much as this, but the doctrine still remained an abstract one, and equal rights were scarcely thought of as a corollary to equal duties. Margaret Fuller. 51 March 4th. March 5TH. March 6th. 55 March 7th. Fate's pure marble lies so whitely, Formlessly, between us cast; I have wrought and studied slightly — Thou who knowest all things rightly, From my heart's love, but not lightly, Mould a Friendship that shall last. Correspondence. March 8th. Seek comfort thus for all life's painful losing : Compel from Sorrow merit and reward ! Thoughts. March 9TH. Now to the inmost spheres of light Lifted, my wondering soul dilates; Now, dropped in endless depth of night, My hope God's slow recall awaits. Between extremes distraught and rent, I question not the way I go; Who made me, gave it me, I deem, Thus to aspire, to languish so. The Heart's Astronomy 56 March 7th. March 8th. March 9TH. 57 March ioth. " Non possumus!" say the priests of the old order. "Possum!" replies the eternal power. Modern Society. March iith. The constant discovery of new treasures in our material world, of gold, silver, iron and copper, of states to be built up and of harvests to be sown and reaped, are accompanied by corresponding discoveries concerning the variety of human gifts and their application to useful ends. What men and women can be good for may be more voluminously stated to-day than in any preceding age of the world's history. Modern Society. March 12th. For her bosom temple sweet Charity did make complete; Human passions lost their pride Ranged before the gentle-eyed; Sword of meekness pierceth deep, Bitterest chide the eyes that weep; And her anger humbled most Through her pity, never lost. To One who lies in Florence. 58 March ioth. March iith. March 12th. 59 March 13TH. While patient Duty, helped of heavenly Art, Her way pursues, And holy loves reedify the heart The passions use. The Lost Jewel. March 14TH. From tented field to city, to palace, and to throne, Man builds with work his kingdom, and makes the world his own. The New Exodus. March 15TH. With a free, unmeasured tread Shall we pace the cloisters through : Rest, enfranchised, like the Dead; Rest, till Love be born anew. Weary Thought shall take his time, Free of task-work, loosed from rhyme. The House of Rest. 60 March 13TH. March 14.TH. March 15TH. 6, March i6th. A rush of waters, a play of lights, a breeze that cools like the perfumed water of the Narghile, a constant inter- change of accents musically softened from the soft Italian itself, which seems hard in comparison with them; rows of palaces that have swallowed their own story ; churches modelled upon the water like wax flowers upon a mirror ; balconies with hangings of yellow, brown, and white ; dark canals, that suggest easy murders and throwing over of victims ; music on the water ; robust voices of well- defined character ; columns and arches, over which Mr. Ruskin raves, and which for him are significant of religion or irreligion; resolute-looking men and women; a world of history and legend which he who has to live in to-day can scarcely afford time to decipher, — this is Venice as I have seen her, and would see her again. From the Oak to the Olive. March 17TH. Vanished were Virtue, with the power to sin; Will with necessity, that pent it in. My Lecture. March i8th. The Infinite, that sees us thus Mould its transcendent form in clay, Tramples our idol into dust, And we afresh must seek and pray. Entbehren. 62 March i6th. March 17TH. March i8th. 63 March 19TH. Sights and experiences that enrich the mind often do so insensibly. They pass out of our consciousness; but in our later judgments we find our standard changed, and refer back to them as the source of its enlargement. Margaret Fuller. March 20TH. The shaft of death is subtle as a thread, — The air may bring, the garland's bloom conceal; One desperate finger holds it over us, Or in a woman's snowy breast it lies. Of Woman. March 2ist. And the sons of Science around me Reach help from reserved hands. They have spread their net for the Godhood, And bound Him with close-wove bands, While He counts their small thoughts in His balance With minutes, and drops, and sands. Without and Within. 64 March 19TH. March 20TH. March 2ist. 65 March 22D. To me the worship of wealth means, in the present, the crowning of low merits with undeserved honor. Modern Society. March 23D. The rainbow helps us from the storm; But skies serene are uniform, Though colored gems be fair, the white Doth keep the undivided light. Meditation. March 24TH. Power, reft of aspiration; Passion, lacking inspiration; Leisure, not of contemplation. Thus shall danger overcome thee, Fretted luxury consume thee, All divineness vanish from thee. Warning. 66 March 22D. March 23D. March 24TH. 67 March 25TH. For Peace now, with open hands, bestows the blessings which war formerly compelled with iron grasp and frown- ing brow. The true compulsion now is to compel the world to have need of you, by the excellence of your ser- vice. From the Oak to the Olive. March 26th. Stay thus, my Angel, seeing over thee The Heaven that dreamed the Mary and her Christ — The dream whereat the Baby Earth awoke, And, smiling, keeps that smile forevermore. Of Woman. March 27TH. Friends should gather where'er I wandered, hearts should build me a blood-red throne. 'Tis with loving the world and with blessing I'd win it to be my own. A Vision of Palm Sunday. 68 March 25TH. March 26th. March 27TH. 69 March 28th. " Ave ! " I hear the pitying angels say; From depths they call; Through all Griefs multitude Heaven makes a way. Heaven rest us all ! The Old Man's Walk. March 29TH. To America it was said at the outset, " Prepare to receive the World, and to make it free ! ' ' Modern Society. March 30TH. I've wrought alone — my pleasure was my task. As I walk onward to Eternity, It were a trivial thing to stand and ask That my faint footsteps should remembered be; Of all Earth's crownings, I would never one But thine approving hand upon my head, Dear as the sacred laurels of the dead, And that high, measured praise, " Thou hast well done ! To my Master. 70 March 28th. March 29TH. March 30TH. March 31ST. Those of us who have numbered threescore years can remember the perpetual lamentation of the cultivated Amer- ican of forty years ago. His whole talk was a cataloguing of negatives : " We have not this ; we have not that." To all of which the true answer would have been : " You have a wonderful country, an exceptional race, an unparalleled opportunity. You have not yet made your five talents ten. That is what you should set about immediately." Margaret Fuller. 7- March 31ST 73 APRIL April ist. A day of fuller joy arose for me ¥ When the young Spring-tide came, and dark-eyed boys Bound violets and anemones to sell ; The later light gave scope to long delight, And I might stray, unhaunted by the fear Of fever, or the chill of evening air, While happiest companionship enriched The ways whose very dust was gold before. Rome. April 2d. The second aspect of Florence was the Pitti Palace, brown and massive. Well content was the Medici to live in it, ill content to exchange it, even for the promised threshold of Paradise. A good little sermon here suggests itself, of which the text was preached long ago, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." And the Medici's investments had been large in Pitti, and tri- fling in Paradise; hence the difficulty of realizing in the lat- ter. Within the Pitti Palace are things that astonish the world, and have a right to do so, as have all the original results of art. The paintings are all — so to speak — set on doors which open into new avenues of thought and specu- lation for mankind. The ideal world, of which the real is but a poor assertion, has, in these glimpses, its truest por- traiture. From the Oak to the Olive. 76 April ist. April 2D, 77 April 3D. As yonder sun, an exiled king, Each day his slumbering world retakes, And from the dark domain of Night, As sure as God, his conquest makes, So the immortal principle, That fills Creation with its breath, Daily from rudest chaos wrings Souls which, like ours, can laugh at death. Among the Ruins of Ostia. April 4.TH. Since Fancy, sitting at her tireless loom To weave soul-raiment of the thread of Fate, By Nature needs to pattern and to mate, And blends her bright and dark so cunningly That one without the other could not be. My Lecture, April 5TH. At that day, and for ten years later, one might occa- sionally have seen in some street of Boston a fragile figure with a head distinguished by snowy curls and starry eyes. Here was the winter of age; here the perpetual summer of the soul. The coat and hat d^cl not matter; but they were of some quaint forgotten fashion, outlining the vision as be- longing to the past. One felt a modesty in looking at any- thing so unique and delicate. I remember this vision as suddenly disclosed out of a bitter winter's day ; and the street was Chestnut street, and the figure was Washington Allston, going to visit the poet, Richard H. Dana. And not long afterwards the silvery snows melted, and the soul which had made those eyes so luminous shot back to its immortal sphere. Margaret Fuller. 78 April 3D. April 4TH. April 5TH. 79 April 6th. How great soe'er the fool, The multitude's a greater whom he rides. Claudius. April yru. Time loses his paltry measure Now that Love's eterne draws near, And the lingering moments that part us Are endless in hope and fear. Waiting. April 8th. With fuller light, let women's eyes, Earnest, beneath the Christ-like brow, Strike this deep question home to men, ' ; Thy brothers perish — idlest thou ? " From Newport to Rome. 80 April 6th. April 7th. April 8th. Si April 9TH. The freedom of intercourse which makes one nation known to another, and puts the culture of the most ad- vanced at the service of the most barbarous, is like a flood which carries everywhere the seeds of good and of evil. The ripening of these depends much upon the accident of the human soil they may happen to find; but careful hus- bandry will have even more to do with the result. Modern Society. April ioth. Of the Heaven is generation; Fruition in the deep earth lies; And where the twain have broadest blending, The stateliest growths of life arise. Set, then, thy root in earth more firmly; Raise thy fair head erect and free; And spread thy loving arms so widely, That Heaven and earth shall meet in thee. April iith. A thousand rhymes shall pass, and only one Show, crystal-shod, the Muse's twinkling feet; A thousand pearls the haughty Ethiop spurned Ere one could make her luxury complete. To the Critic 82 April 9TK April ioth. April iith. S3 April 12TH. With this brilliant vision before her, and with her whole literary future trembling, as she thought, in the scale, Mar- garet prayed only that she might make the right decision. This soon became clear to her, and she determined, in spite of the, entreaties of her family, to remain with her careworn mother, and not to risk the possibility of en- croaching upon the fund necessary for the education of her brothers and sisters. Of all the crownings of Margaret's life, shall we not most envy her that of this act of sacrifice ? So near to the feast of the gods, she prefers the post of duty, and recognizes the claims of family affection as more imperative than the gratification of any personal taste or ambition. Margaret Fuller. April 13TH. Oh ! I do not come of my willing, With froward and restless feet; I have pleasant tasks in my chamber, And friends well beloved to greet; To follow the dear Lord Jesus, I walk in the storm and snow- Where I find the trace of his footsteps, There lilies and roses grow. The Charitable Visitor. April 14.TH. Slowly roll the wheels of Science On the flowery ways of Love ; Clogged with sweets, the cheated pedant Waits, forgetful of remorse. Studies. 84 April izth. April 13TH. April 14TH. 85 April 15TH. The Italian school was to art what the Greek school was to literature, — an original creation and beginning. But life has surpassed Plato and Aristotle. We are forced to piece their short experiences, and say to both, " You are matchless, but insufficient." And so, though Raphael's art remains immortal and unsurpassed, we are forced to say of his thought.: "It is too small." No one can settle, gov- ern, or moralize a country by it. It will not even suffice to reform Italy. The golden transfigurations hang quiet on the walls and let pope and cardinal do their worst. We want a world peopled with faithful and intelligent men and women. The Prometheus of the present day is needed rather to animate statues than to make them. From the Oak to the Olive. April i6th. I saw Albano, Ostia, Tivoli. The Sibyl of the Temple, spreading still Her silent awful oracle before The crowned Iris of the waterfall, Who, from her crystal columns opposite, Smiles promise back for mournful 'monishing, And when she flies, flies heavenward, nor leaves More earthly record than the glittering tears In which the gladness of her soul dissolves, And, thrilling through th' unconscious element, The deep pulsation of a deathless heart. ROM! 86 April 15TH. April i6th. 87 April 17TH. To desire the approbation which can enlighten us as to the merits of what we have done or attempted, is wise as well as graceful. To make constant laudation a promi- nent object in any life is a capital mistake in its ordering. To prefer the praise of men to the justification of con- science is at once cowardly and criminal. Changes in American Society. .April i8th. Oh ! tremblingly I sit to sing, And take the lyre upon my knee; Like child divine to mortal maid, My gift is full of awe to me. To sing for praise, to sing for gold, Or ev'n for mere delight of singing, Were as if empty joy of smell Should prompt the censer's fragrant swinging. Dear Soul of bliss, and bliss of song, Be thou and song insphered with me; Thus may I hold the sacred gift, Possessing, but possest in thee. The Joy of Poesy. April ic/th. The inexorable progress of events has changed this, with so much else. Youth, beauty, sex, all imperial in their day, are discrowned by the dusty hand of Time, and ranged in the gallery of the things that were. George Sand's vol- umes still glow and sparkle on the bookshelf; but George Sand's personality and her passions are dim visions of the past, and touch us no longer. Margaret Fuller. 88 April 17TH. April i8th. April 19TH. 89 April 2oth. And thou shalt suffer to be free, But most shalt suffer to be bound; Pour, then, the cup of thy desire An offering upon holy ground. Entbehkm. April 21ST. Upon my brow and bosom Let holy lilies lie. By the child Jesus, gathered In radiant infancy; Then, when the midnight fever Rushes through heart and brain, I hold them here, I press them there, And God is felt again. Midnight. April 22D. Where is God's image in this human brute who lands on our shores, full only of the insolence of beggary? Far, far be from us ever the methods and procedures which have made or left him what he is. Honor and glory to those patient, good men and women who will redeem his chil- dren from the degradation which seems almost proper to them. Theirs be a crown above that of the poet or orator. Modern Society. 90 «• April 2oth. April 21ST. April 22D. 91 April 23D. O hearts that wonder long ! O Truth that sufferest wrong ! Meet in your might; Lift the pure banner high ! Raise one impassioned cry, Nobler than victory, — " God speed the right ! " Hymn for a Spring Festival. April 24TH. Come, visit the flowers, thy cousins, God's dear little lamb, and mine ! See where, lit by one flaming crystal, The gems of the greenhouse shine ! The leaves of this rose thou shalt scatter With the strength of thine infant will; Thou hast ravished the form of the flower, See ! the heart keeps its sweetness still. Servant to a Wooden Cradle. April 25TH. It must, I should think, be very tedious and surprising to Europeans to hear Americans complain of being so young, so crude, so immature. This is not according to nature. I imagine a nursery full of babies who should bewail the fact of their infancy. Any one who should hear such a complaint would cry out, " Why, that is the best thing about you. You have the newness, the promise, the unwasted vigor of childhood — gifts so great that Christ enjoined it upon holy men to recover, if they had lost them." Changes in American Society. 92 April 23D. April 24TH. April 25TH. 93 April 26th. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men, before his judgment- seat. Oh ! be swift, my soul, to answer him ! be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on. Battle-Hymn of the Republic. April 27TH. Yet 'tis so merciful That time wipes out our traces, And that the thick-set moss Grows o'er our darkened faces, Till but some faithful heart Our faded traits comprises, And sorrow dead in earth, In harmless beauty rises. The Legacy. April 28th. For Peace, now, with open hands, bestows the blessings which War formerly compelled with iron grasp and frown- ing brow. The true compulsion now is to compel the world to have need of you, by the excellence of your ser- vice. From the Oak to the Olive. 94 April 26th. April 27TH. April 28th. 95 April 29TH. Soft as the touch of twilight that restores The hard-bound earth from summer sweat and strain, This dream of morning soothed my fevered soul, And gave me to my gentleness again. Waking. April 30TH. The statement that an American idea should lie at the foundation of our national life and its expression is a truth too often lost sight of by those to whom it most imports. On the other hand, the great body of the world's literature is like an ocean in whose waves and tides there is a continuity which sets at naught the imposition of definite limits. Literature is first of all human; and American books, which express human thought, feeling, and experience, are American literature, even if they show no distinctive national fea- ture. Margaret Fuller. 96 April 29TH. April 30TH, 07 MAY May ist. Oh ! ye winged ones — shall I stand A moment in your shining ranks? Will ye pass me the golden cup? Only tears can give you thanks. Salutatory, MAY 2D. But where, oh ! where shall we find the antidote to this metallic poison? Perhaps in the homoeopathic principle of cure. When the money miracle shall be complete, when the gold Midas shall have turned everything to gold, then the human heart will cry for flesh and blood, for brain and muscles. Then shall manhood be at a premium, and money at a discount. Modern Society. May 3D. I knew a day of glad surprise in Rome, tree to the childish joy of wandering, Without a " wherefore," or " to what good end? " By querulous voice propounded, or a thought Of punctual Duty waiting at the door Of home, with weapon duly poised to slay Delight, ere it across the threshold bound. Rome. IOO May ist May 2D. May 3D. IOI May 4th. Here amid shadows, lovingly embracing, Dropt from above by apple-trees unfruitful, With a chance scholar, caught and held to help me, Read I in Horace. Lost in the figures, lawless in the metrum, Piercing the classic phrase with homespun English, Bridging doubtful meanings with such daring fictions As move his wonder. Latin. May 5TH. Industry has a deeper mine of wealth than piracy or plunder can ever open. From the Oak to the Olive. May 6th. The russet garb of penitence For me were lighter wear Than all a queen's magnificence, A prince's minivere. Contrasts. I02 May 4th. May 5TH. May 6th. [03 May 7th. His life was like an opal gem That breaks in many a painful thrill; The risen rainbow of his soul The heaven of song is spanning still. While happy Love and Grief sublime Unite their emblems on his brow, And pave with zeal his shadowy court, — A Lover once, a Master now. Chopin. May 8th. Mr. Longfellow did, indeed, dwell in the beautiful house of culture, but with a heart deeply sensitive to the touch of the humanity that lay encamped around it. In the " Psalm of Life," his banner, blood-red with sympathy, was hung upon the outer wall. And all his further parley with the world was through the silver trumpet of peace. Margaret Fuller. May 9TH " Stood, then, no child before your door? " The Lord, persistent, said. " Only a ragged beggar-boy, With rough and frowsy head. " The dirt was crusted on his skin, His muddy feet were bare; The cook gave victuals from within ; I cursed his coming there." What sorrow, silvered with a smile, Slides o'er the face divine ? What tenderest whisper thrills rebuke ? " The beggar-boy was mine ! " A Parable. 104 May 7th May 8th. May 9th. 105 May ioth. Pile luxury as high as you will, health is better, and the body of a well-fed and not over- worked ploughman is, nine times out of ten, a better possession than the body of a man of fortune, especially if he be at the same time a man of pleasure. Changes in American Society. May iith. Mercy belongs to us from ancient days — Yea — when the Human and Divine did part, God left the boon of pity to the world, And left it garnered in a woman's heart. Florence Nightingale and her Praisers. May 12TH. Now that the Spring ushers smiling the full, glad Summer, As the bride-maiden the bride, to grow modest beside her, " Here is my sister," she saith, " but more fashioned and perfect, Come to a fuller growth in the heart of the Highest, She the decision, I the intent of His kindness — Her receive, O ye mortals, for good and fruition. And as my blushes are lost in the glow of her beauty, So let your pleasures give place to the earnest of Wisdom." The Sermon of Spring. 1 06 May ioth. May iith. May I2th. ro 7 May 13TH. If, in the matter of social intercourse, show is allowed to usurp the place of substance, the indolence of mankind must bear its part of the blame. It is far easier to order a suit for the great occasion, than to brighten one's mental jewels for the small one. Many a soldier is brave on parade, who would not shine on a field of battle. Many a woman will pass for elegant in a ball-room, or even at a court drawing-room, whose want of true breeding would become evident in a chosen company. Modern Society. May 14.TH. But while thou walkest, Time doth follow on With lessons that are slow and great to learn. Lessons of human weakness, and life's woe ; The impotence of anger, the divine Of Pardon, and th' unconquerable power Fixed in the waiting, philosophic eye. Fanny Kemble's Child. May 15TH. As from some dreamer's inspiration Each noble school of Science grew, And rules that help the striving many Were moulded from the gifted few; So, from his life and thoughts transcendent, Flashed light that ages cannot dim : Blind Faith and Feeling were before him; Religion followed after him. The Christ. 108 May 13TH. May 14TH. May 15TH. 109 May i 6th. In Italian villas, the feeling of the Beautiful, which has produced a race of artists, is everywhere manifest — every- where are beautiful forms and picturesque effects. Even the ruins of Rome seem to be held together by this fine bond. No stone dares to drop, no arch to moulder, but with an exquisite and touching grace. And the weeds, oh ! the weeds that hang their pennons on the Coliseum; how graciously do they float, as if they said, — " Breathe softly, lest this crumbling vision of the Past go down before the rude touch of the modern world ! " And so one treads lightly, and speaks in hushed accents, lest, in the brilliant Southern noon, one should wake the sleeping heart of Rome to the agony of her slow extinction. A Trip to Cuba. May 17TH. Two faces, once familiar, that again Snatch silent greeting, with a crowd between ; But they long parted — sit on heights of Time That gulfs divide, and constant shadows screen. The veil of separation rent in twain, Their eyes as in a dim cathedral met, Whose arches from the swiftly passing years, Its crystals from the glow of Hope were set. As it Seems. May i 8th. Thus, happier he to whose lone grave Nor Love nor Fame its tribute gives, Than who, illustrious, leaves a seed To harm the simplest soul that lives. The Poet's Wish. I IO May i 6th. May 17TH. May i 8th. May 19TH. In accepting or rejecting a criticism, we should con- sider, first, its intention; secondly, its method; and, in the third place, its standard. If the first be honorable, the second legitimate, and the third substantial, we shall adopt the conclusion arrived at as a just result of analytic art. Margaret Fuller. MAY 20TH. How soft the shadows gather in our train, Holding the dead Day's pall, while we go forth, Bearing heart incense for her funeral ! This was a day on whose enamelled brow No marring break of separation came; ■ One golden web of happiness she wove; Wherefore, God rest thee, gentle Day — farewell ! The World's Own. MAY 2IST. Through sluggish centuries of growth The thoughtless world might vacant wait; But now the busy hours crowd in, And Man is come to man's estate. From Newport to Rome. 112 May 19TH. May 2oth. May 2 1 st. "3 May 22D. Farewell, wonderful Venice ! Thou wert painfully got- ten together, no doubt, like other dwelling-places of man. Thou earnest of toiling and moiling, planning, digging, and stone-breaking. But thou lookest to have risen from the waters like a dream. And this wholeness of effect makes thee a great work of art, not henceforth to be plun- dered by the great ones of the earth, but to be cherished by the lovers of beauty, studied by the lovers of art. From the Oak to the Olive. May 23D. Soft the all-embracing moonlight Holds its lone one in its arms, And the nerves, high strung to sorrow, With its lambent touch disarms. From its softness I could model Many an image fair and free, But to-night I yield this power, It shall work its will on me. Moonlight. May 24.TH, Clearer vision, joys ecstatic, I resign for humble state; But let Life be emblematic Of the soul's immortal fate. Visions. May 22D. May 23D. May 24.TH. US May 25TH. Modern society, then, is chiefly occupied with a vast assim- ilation of novelties. This task is not imposed upon us alone While the New World has to digest races and traditions, the Old World has to digest ideas. Thanks to the good Puritan stomach, which we inherit, the process goes on here with little interruption. But across the sea, in Rome, in Germany, in Russia, what nausea, what quarrelling with the fatal morsel upon which Providence compels the lips to close ! Modern Society. May 26th. In this glad time of Spring Nature doth garlands bring, Crowning her joys. All that was seared with frost, Buried, and mourned for lost, With a new Pentecost, Flame-touched, doth rise. Hymn for a Spring Festival. May 27TH. But not a word I breathe is mine To sing in praise of man or God; My Master calls at noon or night ! I know his whisper and his nod. Mother Mind. 116 May 25TH. May 26th. May 27TH. 117 May 28th. A man's success is in strict proportion to his use; and the servant of all is the master of all. From the Oak to the Olive. May 29TH. Above the seas of gold and glass The Christ, transfigured, stands to-day; Below, in troubled currents, pass The tidal fates of men away. Through that environed blessedness Our sorrow cannot wholly rise, Nor his swift sympathy redress The anguish that in Nature lies. Yet mindful from his banquet sends The guest of God a cup of wine, And shares a morsel with his friends, Who, wondering, wait without the shrine. The Battle Eucharist. May 30TH. Though fortunes fail, and prospects frown, May Duty keep her matchless crown; Nor Desolation bid depart The glories of a guileless heart. Meditation. May 28th. May 29TH. May 30TH. 119 May 3 i st. The palm-trees are unapproachable in beauty, — they stand in rows like Ionic columns, straight, strong, and reg- ular, with their plumed capitals. They talk solemnly of the Pyramids and the Desert, whose legends have been whispered to them by the winds that cross the ocean, freighted with the thoughts of God. Then, these huge white lilies, deep as goblets, from which one drinks fra- grance, and never exhausts, — these thousand unknown jewels of the tropics ! A Trip to Cuba. May 3 i st, 121 -^uFtm JUNE June ist. Content thee, then ! the secret of my life Not even to Love's true hearing may belong; Only to His who set, to keep my lips, His guardians twain of Silence and of Song. The Shadow that is Born with us. June 2d. I love the light ! the very blaze of noon Frights not iny courage : on my hardy brow- It lays a blessing and a kiss at once. The World's Own. June 3D. Here we seem to find a confusion between two concep- tions of the word " original." Originality in one accepta- tion is vital and universal. We originate from the start, and do not become original, but the power to develop forms of thought which shall deserve to be called original is a rare gift, and one which even conscience cannot com- mand at will. Margaret Fuller. 124 June ist. June 20. June 30. 25 June 4th. Come, then, ye sons of men ! Stand, and take heart again, Blessing the year. Earth fills her breast with food Odors enchant the wood; Each leafy solitude Music doth cheer. Hymn for a Spring Festival. June 5TH. I saw the outposts, where Rome's wider growth Invited wider ruin, crumbled now, Till Ruin's self needs History's blazonment To be remarked, so closely does she hug The charitable weeds that Time's remorse Flings back, to hide what he makes devastate. Rome. June 6th. If we tend to any extreme, nowadays, it is to that of making art take the place of thought, as may somewhat appear in the general rage for illustration and decoration. Changes in American Society. 126 June 41H. June 5TH. June oth. 127 June: jtw. Slow lustres lead us from the wild surprise Of early sorrows — stranger following strange, Till in th' uncertain, billowy waste we see No law save this, of unsubstantial change. As IT IS. June 8th. Praise is of the awful voices, of the face whose smile or frown Helps the martyr to his glory, casts the laurelled tyrant down. For the scales that weigh men's actions, measure too the poet's song, And the hidden thoughts of Justice to Eternity belong. A Word with the Brownim.s. June c/th. Calvinism, per se, is as absolute as Catholicism, and as cruel. The Calvinistic hell is but an adjourned Inquisi- tion, in which controversialists have as great satisfaction in tormenting the souls of their opponents as Torquemada had in tormenting their bodies. From the Oak to the Olive. 128 June 7th. June 8th. June 9TH. 129 June ioth. Nature, that ministers to this delight, And consecrates our pleasure to a right, True to her teaching, queenly souls will smile To mask themselves in beggar weeds awhile, While starving sinners Lazarus might deride, Hug purple rags, and feed themselves on Pride. My Lecture. June iith. Not often to the parting soul Does life in dreary grimness show; Earth's captive, leaving prison walls, Beholds them touched with sunset glow. In this is Nature fain to be Religion's helpful ministress; Since, whatsoe'er one bears, 'twere good One went to God in thankfulness. Tribute. June i2th. Let us then cherish the race of foundlings, of whom Moses was the first and the greatest. The princess who reared him saw not the glorious destiny which lay hid, as a birth jewel, in his little basket of reeds. She saw only, as some of us have seen, a helpless, friendless babe. A Trip to Cuba. I30 June ioth. June iith. June i2th. 131 June 13TH. Ere the prison gates unsuing, Let the spirit portals ope; While the Winter holds the Spring Shall the grave-mound cover hope. Come the pang that. ends all woe, God can better pardon so. The Black Coach. June 14TH. In the lovely summer night, Softest music breathes around me, Softest memories have bound me, Tn the lovely summer night. A Star (.loth send his light, — A blazing diamond, pearl beset, The brightest where the bright are met In the lovely summer night. Summer Night 132 June 13 June 14.TH. '33 June 15TH. Charles Dickens was then in full bloom, — Thackeray in full bud. Sydney Smith exercised his keen, discreet wit. Kenyon not only wrote about pink champagne, but dis- pensed it, with many other good things. Rogers enter- tained with exquisite taste, and showed his art-treasures without ostentation. Tom Moore, like a veteran canary, chirped, but would not sing. Lord Brougham and the Iron Duke were seen in the House of Lords. Carlyle growled and imbibed strong tea at Chelsea. The Queen was in the favor of her youth, with her handsome husband always at her side. The Duchess of Sutherland, a beauti- ful woman with lovely daughters, kept her state at Stafford House. Lord Houghton was known as Monckton Milnes. The Honorable Mrs. Norton wore her dark hair folded upon her classic head, beneath a circlet of diamonds. A first season in London was then a bewilderment of bril- liancy in reputations, beauties, and entertainments. Margaret Fuller. June i6th. There, in a labyrinth of high delights, I wandered, winding Memory's golden thread, — There my weak faith, that bound and bleeding lay, Rose free, before the touch of Raphael. The World's Own. June 17x11. ( ) Land, the measure of our prayers, Hope of the world in grief and wrong, Be thine the blessing of the years, The gift of faith, the crown of song. Our Country. J 34 June 15TH, June i6th June 17TH. i35 June i8th. The least shrub has its blossom, if you only know how to find it. A Trip to Cuba. June icvth. For charity begins indeed at home, in the heart, and, descending to the fingers, rules also the rebellious member whose mischief is often done before it is meditated. Fkom the Oak to the Olive. June 2oth. When such as we supremely love and trust Meet the last struggle on their outward way, Tis the last look of deathlessdoving eyes, The parting gesture of unconquered Faith, That o'er the bitter waters beckons us, Wringing fond hearts with vague imaginings, Making unblest the limits that forbid Aught save our longing souls to follow them. Fanny Kemble's Child. 136 June i8th. J INF. I9TH June 2otii i37 June 2isx. Could a dove caress the silence With the healing of her wings; Could some dear-bought heavenly treasure Stand for earth's beloved things; Through the gracious ministration Of the gentle summer night, Free of shadows, blest in longing, I could soar to life and light. Moonlight. June 22D. I reverence the masses of mankind, rich or poor. My heart beats high when I think of the good which human society has already evolved, and of the greater good which is in store for those who are to come after us. But I hate the profane vulgarity which courts public notice and mention as the chief end of existence, and which, in so doing, puts out of sight those various ends and interests which each generation is bound to pursue for itself, and promote for its successors. Modern Society. June 23D. Let us be modest ! we are rich to win One jewel from the treasure-laden deep; Or, from the wreck of affluent loves, to hold A single faithful breast whereon to weep. " A breast to weep upon? oh ! this at least ! " I cried, with outstretched arm, and sudden wail ; Experience shuts our asking with one hope; Trust in thyself, and God, who cannot fail ! As IT IS. 138 June 2ist June 22D. June 23D. 139 June 24.TH. For Soul to outward Beauty h As Sun to dawning Day ; The rosy drapery vanishes Before the conquering ray. June 25TH. Like London, Paris had then (1846) some gems of the first water, to which nothing in the present day corre- sponds. Rachel was then queen of its tragic stage; George Sand supreme in its literary domain. De Balzac, Eugene Sue, Dumas pere, and Beranger then lived and moved among admiring friends. Victor Hugo was in early middle- age ; Guizot was in his full prestige, literary and administra- tive. Liszt and Chopin held the opposite poles of the musical world, and wielded, the one its most intense, the other its broader power. The civilized world then looked to Paris for the precious traditions of good taste, and the city deserved this deference as it does not now. Margaret Flllek. June 26th. And often, when I've seen the twilight drape Her folds of sadness o'er the wide domain Of the Campagna, desolate with tombs, (Itself a monumental wilderness,) I've pondered thus : " Perhaps at midnight here Wakes the quiescent city of our day, A Juliet, drunken with her draught of woe, And wildly calls on Love's deliverance, Writhing in her untimely cerements, And stiffens back to silence when she hears, ' Love has no help save that which waits on Death ! ' " [40 JL'NE 24TH. JUXE 25TH. June 26th. 141 June 27TH. The critic is allowed to rule The common law of art — The poet takes his judgment from The pleading of the heart. A Vision of Montgomery Place. June 28th. Of all the changes which I can chronicle as of my own lime, the change in the position of women is perhaps the most marked and the least anticipated by the world at large. Whatever opinions heroic men and women may have held concerning this, from Plato's time to our own, the most en- lightened periods of history have hardly given room to hope that the sex in general would ever meet the en- franchisement which it enjoys to-day. I date the assur- ance of its freedom from the hour .in which the first university received women graduates upon the terms accorded to pupils of the opposite sex. Changes in American .Society. June 29TH. Forbid it, God ! that sleep should come So deep that I could let his image drop, And lose the sacred nearness he has sworn To make eternal. Death itself hath not This power; since death brings heaven, and heaven must give His presence, or be forfeit to my faith. The World's Own. 142 June 27TH. June 28th June 29TH. H3 June 30TH. And what that need, both old and new, The eternal need of human-kind? Not that we keep a fable blind : It is that thou, dear God, be true ! First Causes. 144 June 30TH. HS ***> LJeJI JULY July ist. For Poetry is the freedom of the oppressed, — it is one voice leaping up where a thousand arms are chained, but the thousand hear it, and take courage. In the dreamy tropical life, the beautiful surroundings must bear some fruit. Those glorious growths of tree and flower, those prickly hedges with the sudden glare of a red sword among them, those inconceivable sunsets, and nights without parallel, — these things must all write themselves upon the sensitive Southern nature, and the language in which they write themselves is poetry. A TRir to Cuba. July 2d. As the centurial aloe responds to its hour, Shooting its petals aloft to the eyebrows of heaven, And dying when they die, our natural loves and desires All rush or creep on to crises of anguish or rapture. Wherefore. July 3D. See, the stars nestle in the down of Night, And, from the calm of one wide Motherd)reast, Doth holy sleep reconsecrate the world. Fanny Kemble's Child. 14S July ist July 2d. July 3D. 149 July 4th. The flag of our stately battles, not struggles of wrath and greed, Its stripes were a holy lesson, its spangles a deathless creed ; 'Twas red with the blood of freemen, and white with the fear of the foe ; And the stars that tight in their courses 'gainst tyrants its symbols know. The Flag. July 5TH. Gleanings at large from the field of memory, whose harvests grow more uncertain as the memorizer grows older. In youth the die is new and sharp, and the im- pression distinct and clean cut. This sharpness of outline wears with age; all things observed give us more the com- mon material of human life, less its individual features. From the Oak to the Olive. July 6th. Thou shouldst have had more faith ! thy hand did shed The seed of Freedom in the field of God; But the last peril drove thee from thy bounds, And stranger feet the unripe harvest trod. Where Glory should have crowned thee, failure whelms: Truth judges thee, that should have made thee great. Thine is the doom of souls that cannot bring Their highest courage to their highest fate. Pio Nono. l S° July 41 h. July 5TH, July 6th, i5 ] July jth. But these gifts of nature's blending We should hold to permanence. Loftier growths, more nearly bending, Heart more nobly heart befriending, Eyes that in their deepest blending Cannot lose their heavenward glance. Correspondence. July 8th. The sense of security which then prevailed in the French capital was indeed illusory. The stable basis of things was already undermined by the dangerous action of theories and of thinkers. Louis Philippe was unconsciously nearing the abrupt close of his reign. A new chaos was imminent, and one out of which was to come, first an heroic uprising, and then a despotism so monstrous and mischievous as to fore- doom itself, a caricature of military empire which for a time cheated Europe, and in the end died of the emptiness of its own corruption. Margaret Fuller. July 9TH. Oh ! treasured in the hand that cannot fail Let thy poor life, through want and waiting, lie, Radiant in anguish, comforted of tears, If the deep voice but whisper " It is I ! " Privation. l 5 2 July jtii, July 8th, July 9TH. *S3 JUL,Y IOTH. Women who weave in hope the daily web, Who leave the deadly depths of passion pure, Who hold the stormy powers of will attent, As Heaven directs, to act, or to endure; No multitude strews branches in their way, Not in their praise the loud arena strives; Still as a nameless incense rises up The costly patience of their offered lives. Florence Nightingale and her Praisers. July iith. The time of poor Marie Antoinette was the culmination of such a period of show. Its glow and glitter, and its lavish waste, had put out of sight the true and intimate re- lations of man to man. And so, as the gilded portion of the age made its musters of beautiful empty heads, of vani- ties throned upon vanities, the ungilded part made its deadly muster of discontent, displeasure, and despair. The empty heads fell, and much that was precious and noble fell with them. ' The great stage produced its bloody drama, and the curtain of horror closed upon it. Modern Society. July 12th. A woman's beauty is a power on earth; A woman's passion is a power in hell ! The World's Own. 1 54 July ioth. Tuly iith. July 12th. 55 July 13TH. These aisles were built -with holy living, These stones were piled with thought and prayer; The world before us gave the pattern, The world that follows is the heir. And hearts are set, like gems incrusted, > In the fair walls; and, ruby-red, The blood of martyrdom doth stain them, And tears more terrible to shed. So, build thy dome in airy heaven A shelter for new hope and joy, And write thereon the Master-sentence, "Come to deliver, not destroy ! " The Church. July 14TH. The abstract principles of right and wrong we know, but not the processes, nor the duration of their working out in history. All the white. handkerchiefs in Exeter Hall will not force the general Congress of Nations to decide questions otherwise than by the laws of convenience and advantage. A Trip to Cuba. July 15TH. "Behold," he said, "Life's great impersonate, Nourished by labor ! Thy gods are gone with old-time faith and fate ; Here is thy neighbor." A New Sculptor. 156 July 13TH. July 14TH. July 15TH. i57 July i6th. Marshal and gild the pomp of circumstance, and do it homage with bated breath; character remains the true majesty, honor and intelligence its prime ministers. Changes in American Society. July 17TH. Be a man, and be one wholly ! Keep one great love, purely, solely, Till it make thy nature holy; That thy way be paved in whiteness, That thy heart may beat in lightness, That thy being end in brightness. Warning. July i8th. The steady spheres of God outvie The fitful meteors of the brain; These may be wanting to our need, To those we never look in vain. One Word more with E. B. B. 158 July i6th. July 17TH. July i8th. 159 July 19TH. For the peasant is a fact, and the prince hut a symbol, and a symbol of that which to-day can he represented without him, — viz., the unity of will and action essential to the existence of the state. This unity to-day is accom plished by the cooperation of the multitude, nut by its exclusion. The symbol remains useful, but no longer sub- lime. No need, therefore, to exaggerate the difference between the common symbol and the common man. For- tify your unity in the will and understanding of the people, not in their fear and imagination. And let the king be moderate in his following, and illustrious in his character and office. So shall he be a leader as well as a banner — a fact as well as a symbol. From the Oak to the Olive. July 2oth. Fate, that can raise a beggar to a throne, Mocks him and thee, can rob as well as give; From every loved possession thou mayst learn That thou canst be bereft of it, and live. As it is. July 2ist. Through the dark years of crime, For this appointed time Justice did wait. Purpose and Hope, that lay Passive and dumb as clay, Stand, in God's chosen day, Stronger than Fate. Hymn for a Spring Festival. 160 July 19TH. July 20TH. July 2ist. 161 July 22D. Mr. Emerson had also a priesthood, but of a different order. The calm, severe judgment, the unpardoning taste, the deliberation which not only preceded but also followed his utterances, carried him to a remoteness from the com- mon life of common people, and allowed no intermingling of this life with his own. For him, too, came a time of passion which vindicated his interest in the great issues of his time. But this was not in Margaret's day, and to her he seemed the palm-tree in the desert, graceful and admi- rable, bearing aloft a waving crest, but spreading no shelter- ing and embracing branches. Margaret Fuller. July 23c Other, at times, that downward torrent seemed; A daring Sappho leaps she from the rock, Maddened of faithless sunshine, fleeing it. In the abyss is peace, and she shall sleep Treasured in darkness, garnered up in gloom. But sharing the impulsive ecstasy, Love leaps with her — his slender arms of steel Embracing what his rainbow wings uphold. Now, vain her furious flight, her struggle vain, The sunshine overtakes her desperate course. Her madness is unhealed, she cannot rest, For love, in sunshine, follows everywhere. Rome July 24.TH. Thus Faith, cast out of barren creeds, Shall rest in emblems of her own; Beauty still springing from Decay, The cross-wood budding to the crown. Tribute. 162 July 221). July 23D. July 24TIL '63 JULY 25TII. Here, as in Rome, men who have thoughts disguise them, and painful circumlocution conveys the meaning of friend to friend. For treachery lies hid, like the scorpion under your pillow, and your most trusted companion will betray your head, to save his own. A Trip to Cuba. July 26th. Smile, then, upon the scourge, devoted friend ! There comes a glory, wreathed with every strife, His meed who waits till his reward is ripe, And crowns God's perfect purpose in his end. Slave Suicide. July 27TH. Ye who walk happy to-day, who unchisp the light vesture That to the heart the warm sunshine may do its glad mis- sion, That through the breast to the heart may strike rapturous joy and expansion, Ye will have sighs to give rorth ere the mantle fold closer : Ye must be sadder and wiser ere Summer shall leave you. The Sermon of Spring. 164 July 25TH. July 26th. July 27TH. 165 July 28th. Money can help people • to education, by paying for the support of those who can give it. But money cannot ex- cuse its possessor from the smallest of the mental opera- tions through which, if at all, a man comes to know what, as a man, he should know. Changes in American Society. July 29TH. The way I seek is swift and terrible ! Faith, with its fervent passion, hurries me, E'en as it blindly guides yon flock in air, Whose whitherward is known to God alone. The World's Own. July 30TH. Some men have wrung strange glory from the cloud That was a prison to their loneliness; And, feeding other hearts with rare delight, Kept for themselves their hunger and distress. The blind majestic bard, whose tearless eyes Were patient in the weariness of night; And one, his brother in a kindred art, Bereft of melody, as he of light. Fruition was not for them of the sense; The world for one, for one the swelling tone. " We work — " they said, and in high toil abode; And " We have wrought ! " they uttered and passed on. Privation. • 166 July 28th. July 29TH. July 30TH. 167 July 31ST. It is in the face of America that the new nations, Greece and Italy, must look for encouragement and recognition. The old diplomacy has no solution for their difficulties, no cure for their distresses. From the Oak to the Olive. 168 July 169 AUGUST August ist. A web of peace and of science Hangs gathering in my loom, And I work after thoughts of wisdom That blot out human doom; And that garb I have wrapped around me — I shall carry it to the tomb. Eros has Warning. August 2d. Ave, sweet Horace, all thy wonder graces (Soul of perfection, with a change of rainbows,) Less must delight me than thy fervent nature, Foremost in friendship. " We with one bound will pursue the silent journey : Ibimus, Ibimus, — let one urn contain us! " Which would survive, to choke Love's glowing embers With Life's gray ashes? Happy thy Maecenas ! happier thou to praise him, Twining thy best beauties round the brow thou lovest : Oh ! to nobly name whom the deep heart doth worship Is a boon most holy. 7- August ist August 2d. 73 August 3D. While society, from an inward necessity, provides for these musterings and displays, it is unable to provide for that intimate and personal intercourse which individuals must found and cultivate for themselves. So much is left for each one of us to do, to find our peers, and open with them an honest exchange of our best for their best. The family most easily begins this, with its intense and ever- enlarging interests. Out of true family life comes a neighborhood, out of a neighborhood the body politic, and the body sympathetic. Modern Society. August 4TH. In thy desolate sleep, and more desolate waking, Spirits unbidden shall question thy will and thine actions, Voices that heed not thine anger shall iterate precepts Of truths eternal that sit where the stars sit and judge thee. Pitiless fingers shall point, neither hating nor loving, Pointing out simply thy blemishes stript of their halo, And the great thoughts of God which, involving thy failure, Set thee aside as a feather, a fragment, an atom, Inharmonious with infinite laws of Creation. Wherefore. August 5TH. Reproof and frost, they fret me ; Toward the free, the sunny lands, From the chaos of existence I stretch these feeble hands. And, penitential, kneeling, Pray God would not be wroth, Who gave not the strength of feeling And strength of labor both. The Dead Christ. 174 August 3D. August 4TH. August 5TH. 75 August 6th. In the supreme domain of tragic art, Rachel then reigned an undisputed queen. Like George Sand, her brill- iant front was obscured by the cloud of doubt which rested upon her private character, — a matter of which even the most dissolute age will take note, after its fashion. And the charmed barrier of the footlights surrounded her with a flame of mystery. Whatever was known or surmised of her elsewhere, within those limits she appeared as the living impersonation of beauty, grace, and power. For Rachel had at this time no public sorrow. How it might fare with her and her lovers little concerned the crowds who gathered nightly, drawn by the lightnings of her eye, the melodious thunder of her voice. Margaret Fuller. August 7th. Mark the wild flashes gloomy natures show, That keep life's fuel for a moment's glow; Mark even the sage's armor soothly hit By the chance arrow of an Idiot's wit. My Lecture. August 8th. Now from my window I survey This amphitheatre of peace, Where moon and stars, without surcease, Nightly present their heavenly play. I see the beauteous drama wrought; Its acts and interludes I trace : I need not seek the Author's face, Whose spirit visits me unsought. First Causes. I 7 6 August 6th. August ym. August 8th. 177 August 9TH. When any class of human beings suffers under the weight of special disadvantage or disability, the individ- uals composing it will rarely attain the average benefits and standard of society, without the intervention of some special belpful agency. Heaven seems, under such circumstances, to raise up chivalrous friends and champions, to whom the specialty of the misfortune affords a point of interest equally special and individual. Memoir of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe. August ioth. In the lovely summer night, — "Walking with beloved shadows O'er the star-lit heaths and meadows, In the lovely summer night. In the lovely summer night, Sharp- edged sorrow waits to seize me ; Death, from sorrow to release me In the lovely summer night. Summer Night. August iith. I will build a house of rest ! Square the corners every one; At each angle on his breast Shall a cherub take the sun; Rising, risen, sinking, down, Weaving day's unequal crown. The House of Rest. 178 August 9TH. August ioth. August iith. 179 AUGUST I2TH. The reason why education is usually so poor among wom- en of fashion is that it is not needed for the life which they elect to lead. With a good figure, good clothes, and a hand- some equipage, with a little reading of the daily papers and of the fashionable reviews, and, above all, with the happy tact which often enables women to make a large display of very small acquirements, the woman of fashion may never feel the need of true education. We pity her, nevertheless, since she will never know its peace and delight. Modern Society. August 13TH. Man's will with slow arraying confronts itself with fate, The pair unconscious twining the arches of the State. Earth keep her fairest garlands to crown the tireless spade; The fields are white with harvest, the hireling's fee is paid. The New Exodus. August 14.TH. My sight is blank, my heart is lorn; My tropic trance of joy I mourn, — That stolen summer of delight, Dreamed on the breast of wintry night, When sad, true souls abide the North, And we, love-truants, issued forth To find, with steady sail unfurled, The glowing centre of the world. Farewell to Havana. 180 August 12th. August 13TH. August 14.TH. 181 August 15TH. A democratic people noes not acquiesce either in priestly or in diplomatic precedence. Let people perform their uses, earn their bread, enjoy their own, and respect their neighbors; these are the maxims of good life in a democratic country. " Love God, love thy neighbor," is better than " Fear God, honor the king." From the Oak to the Olive. August i6th. Blessed is he who takes comfort in seed-time and harvest, Setting the warfare of life to the hymn of the seasons. In the garden, the whispering walls are our refuge, Closes with music its gate on the outer confusion; The heaped green grasses rise up in their congregation, Lifting their heads to answer the sunshine with gladness. The Sermon of Spring. August 17TH. To him who presses on, at each degree New visions rise, beyond the dim unseen; Some happier love, some newer hope shall come, And only this slow suffering lies between. Privation. 182 August 15TH, August i6th. August 17TH. 183 August i8th. The enfranchisement of a race, when it is lasting, is always accomplished by the slow and solid progress of the race itself. The stronger people rarely give freedom to the weaker as a boon, — when they are able, they rise up and take it with their own hands. It is an earning, not a gift, nor can the attribu f es which make liberty virtual and valuable be commanded, save under certain moral conditions. A Trip to Cuba. August 19TH. Who, single-handed, keeps the pass of Fate, Should have a far eye, and a fearless hand. The World's Own. August 20TH. " La>t, then, this diamond, with a light Kindled 'neath tropic skies : A slave toiled twenty years of night, Bleeding, to win this prize." " One impulse of the blood you name Would put your Kohinoor to shame. " Parable: 184 August i8th. August 19TH. August 2oth. 185 August 2ist. In the world of art the critic who wishes to teach, must first be taught of the artist. He must be very sure that he knows what a work of art is before he carps at what it is not. Margaret Fuller. August 22D. O Exile of the wrath of kings ! O Pilgrim Ark of Liberty ! The refuge of divinest things, Their record must abide in thee. So link thy ways to those of God, So follow firm the heavenly laws, That stars may greet thee, warrior- browed, And storm-sped angels hail thy cause. Our Country August 23D. Thou lord of a thousand acres, with heaps of uncounted gold, The steeds of thy stall are haughty, thy lackeys cunning and bold; I envy no jot of thy splendor, I rail at thy follies none — Salute the flag in its virtue, or leave my poor house alone ! The Flag. 186 August 2ist. August 22D. August 23D. 187 August 24.TH. The great desiderata of humanity still remain these : To preserve the integrity of nature, the purity of senti- ment, and the coherence of thought. The great extension of educational opportunities which we see to-day should make the attainment of these objects easier than in ages of less instruction. But while the pursuit of them is ever normal to the human race, the inherent difficulties of their attainment remain undiminished. Changes in American Society. August 25TH. As the dull mirror, leaden, shallow, cold, Must flush and turn with life it cannot hold; As Echo utters, with unchanging cheek, Love's tenderest vow, or Passion's wildest shriek : So minds, by trivial impulses controlled, Catch stern contagion from the nobler souled; So heroes shudder, in high-hearted rest, To feel the Syren thrilling through their breast. My Lecture. August 26th. And thou, my widowed bridal Rose, Whose pallid leaves the wound disclose From which thy heart's blood floweth, Thou askest why the grave doth hide The form that was thy life, thy pride, Why thou shouldst be so sorely tried; I cannot tell — God knoweth ! The Dying Rose. 188 August 24.TH. August 25TH. August 26th. 189 August 27TH. The Greek Revolution was now well begun, and the light of a national resurrection streamed across the wide continent and wider ocean, and set young America on fire with its blaze. A strong and generous impulse moved Dr. Howe to forsake the prospects opening to him in his own country, and to throw his youthful energies into the scale of the oppressed race, struggling single-handed against a wide-spread and powerful barbarism which, up to that time, counted the states of Europe as its allies. Memoir of Dr. Howe. August 28th. So the true word corrects the stormy school. God's angel, stooping, rests his ruffled wings — For this is one of many questionings, And one has spoken well — The right shall rule. An Hour in the Senate. August 29TH. As Samson in the temple of his foes, Be patient in the hand that crushes thee ! 'Twere but one sudden struggle, one wild throe; Like the blind Anarch, thou wert winged and free. This deadly power discerning in thyself, Keep guarded from the slow match of desire ; Who disembosoms the volcanic Earth Shall not forget to loose the latent fire. The Prisoner of Hope. 190 August 27TH. August 28th. August 29TH. 191 August 30TH. But there are those, born and bred amongst us, who re- turn from their foreign travel with wide- mouthed lamenta- tion over the past enjoyment. Others, snippingly, accost one with : " I cannot bear your climate!" "Strange," I reply, "since it bore you." A Trip to Cuba. August 31ST. Of all my verses, say that one is good, So shalt thou give more praise than Hope might claim And from my poet-grave, to vex thy soul, No ghost shall rise, whose deeds demand a name. To the Critic. 192 August 30TH. August 31ST. '93 SEPTEMBER September ist. I expect you in September, With the glory of the year ; You shall make the Autumn precious, And the death of Summer dear. You shall help the days that shorten, With a lengthening of delight; You shall whisper long-drawn blisses Through the gathering screen of night. The Summons. September 2d. I have been surprised, at some periods of my late visit to Europe, to perceive the growing interest of thinking peo- ple in all that is most characteristic of American progress. Again and again, in private and in public, I have found myself invited to discourse concerning the happy country in which popular education has been so long established, that its results are no longer putative, but ascertained and veri- fied. The country in which the fairest woman, provided she be a modest one, can walk abroad by day or night, un- molested and unsuspected; the country in which women have acquired the courage to think for themselves and to stand by each other. Modern Society. 196 September ist. September 2u. 197 September 3D. Such love bears not the sunlight on its breast, But by the devious conduit underneath, It reaches you, unrecognized, unknown, Save in the brow suffused, and dewy breath. Then count not the heroic heart alone In those whom action and result make great, Since the sublime of Nature's excellence Lies in enduring, as achieving Fate. Florence Nightingale and her Praiser- September 4TH. " Leave me this night ! come back at early dawn, I shall be ready." — " It will be too late ! Necessity is not a merchant's clerk, To be put off from payment for a day ! " The World's Own. September 5TH. Unloose, unloose your chains of pride, Set my vexed spirit free, That I may follow my angel guide In glad humility. For I would hearken the sentence deep, Abide the lifted rod, And sink, like a chastened child, to weep In the fatherhood of God. Contrasts. 198 September 3D. September 4TH. September 5TH. 199 September 6th. The circle of the Transcendentalistswas, for the moment, a new church, with the joy and pain of a new evangel in its midst. In the very heart of New England Puritanism, at that day hard, dry, and thorny, had sprung up a new growth, like the blossoming of a century-plant, beautiful and inconvenient. Boundaries had to be enlarged for it; for if society would not give it room, it was determined to go outside of society, and to assert, at all hazards, the free- dom of inspiration. Margaret Fuller. September 7th. Finite is human help — many words are a hindrance, Words for the muses should bear the slow pressure of pa- tience; Scarcely one leaves them content, after utmost endeavor. The Sermon of Spring. September 8th. I would I might approach thee, As breezes fresh and pure, Unsighted, breathe on fevered lips, And throbbing temples cure; As Joy and Love, and healthful Hope, Visit some chosen heart, And enter, softly welcomed there, And never more depart. Wishes. 200 September 6th. September 7th. September 8th. 201 September 9TH. Without self-discipline and self-sacrifice, no man to -day attains true education, or the dignity of true manhood. For here comes in the terrible fact of man's freedom as a moral agent. Could our age possess and administer the power of the universe to its heart's content, in that heart would yet rest the issues of its life and of its death. Changes in American Society. September ioth. Never tempest lashed the waves But to leave it fresher calm; Never weapon scarred the brave But their blood did purchase balm. God hath writ on high Such a victory As uplifts the nation with its psalm. Parricide. (The Murder of Lincoln.) September iith. A wayward child, on whom hath smiled The light of heavenly love; A pilgrim with a vision dim Of something far above. I live for all who on me call, And yet I live for one; My song must be sweet to all I meet, And yet I sing to none. Mortal and Immortal. 202 September 9TH. September ioth. September iith. 203 September 12th. The example of Lord Byron had given a high poetic sanction to the crusade of the Philhellenes, and this, no doubt, had its weight with our young hero, who was a passionate admirer of the English bard. But the same enthusiasm for human freedom, the same zeal for human deliverance, appearing in every important act of his later life, attests the originality and fervor of his philanthropic inspiration. Memoir of Dr. Howe. September 13TH. The tree that sheds its blossoms ere their time, Bears not the Autumn glory of its fruit. The drop that in its cavern cannot wait The infiltration of a thousand years, Shall never shine, a diamond. Fanny Kemble's Child. September 14TH. I will lead you, dream-enchanted, Where the fairest grasses grow; I will hear your murmured music Where the fresh winds pipe and blow. On the brown heath, weird-encircled, Shall our noiseless footseps fall, — We communing with twin counsel, Each to other all in all. The Summons. 204 September 12th. September r3TH. September i_j.th. 205 September 15TH. As to the sycophancy of snobs, the corruption of office, the contingent insufficiency alike of electors and elected, — these are the accidents of all human governments, to be arrested only by the constant watchfulness of the wiser spirits, the true pilots of the state. From the Oak to the Olive. September i6th. The utterness of sorrow none can know Who have one help, assured, tho' distant far; One fiery love concentred to a star — Night should be sombre that such stars may show. They venture evil that they little guess, Who hide that shining mercy from our eyes. What though it mark a dreamer's paradise? It is a world 'twixt us and nothingness. Love in Exile. September 17TH. In Science, Manners, Art, one instinct guides, In all that glistering passes or abides; To mould his soul in every outward thing, And dwell, a God, where he is born a King. My Lecture. 206 SEPTEMBER I5TH. September i6th. September i/th. 207 September i8th. The reasons why Europe should come to America are obvious and pressing. The reasons why America should visit Europe are equally binding and cogent. The mate- rial and the moral life of to-day are kept at their height by the flux and reflux of human personality, which carries with it every variety of opinion and experience. Could we only send our best abroad, and for the best reasons ! Could Europe only send her best, also, for their best help and study ! But the human average profits first of all by its material enlargement, and will be received just as it is. Modern Society. September ic/th. Weave no more silks, ye Lyons looms, To deck our girls for gay delights ! The crimson flower of battle blooms, And solemn marches fill the night. Weave but the flag whose bars to-day Drooped heavy o'er our early dead, And homely garments, coarse and gray, For orphans that must earn their bread ! Our Orders, iSbi. September 2oth. If thy wealth be loving and giving, the good God is over all To bless the world with thy blessings — no prayer doth un- heeded fall. A Vision of Palm Sunday. 208 September i8th. September 19TH. September 20TH. 209 September 2ist. . . . The Eternal City, the approach to which, before the days of railroads in Italy, was unspeakably impressive and solemn. Seated in the midst of her seven hills, with the desolate Campagna about her, one could hardly say whether her stony countenance invited the spirit of the age, or defied it. Her mediaeval armor was complete at all points. Her heathen heart had kept Christianity far from it by using as exorcisms the very forms which, at the birth of that reli- gion, had mediated between its spirit and the dull sense of the Pagan world. It was the nineteenth century in America, the eighteenth in England, the seventeenth in France, and the fifteenth in Rome. The aged hands of the grandam still held fast the key of her treasures. Her haughty front still said to Ruin and Desolation, — " Here is my throne ! bid kings come bow to it." Margaret Fuller. September 22D. What should the Summer prove, what the brunt and the bearing, When the fair Spring-tide doth leave us a sting in her blossoms ? What shall the action be, what the striving and tearing, When the great heart of a nation, in wildest commotion, Shakes with its terrible heaving the green earth beneath us? The Sermon of Spring. 210 September 2ist. September 22D. September 23D. Oh ! at the Muse-crowned temple of the one, And at the other's lonely sepulchre Pause thou, my soul, and ponder deeply thence The paths of Fate, and choosing, dare not err ! Hast thou the high, heroic heart to walk, Or wait, receptive of the distant tone; Or wouldst thou sit to revel, and crush out Life-blood of others, mingled with thine own? Privation. September 24TH. When I see an American of either sex caught in the vor- tex of European attraction, depolarized from natural rela- tions, and charmed into alliance with feudal barbarism and ignorance, my heart rings the bell of alarm which is hung at the gates of Paradise. Modern Society. September 25TH. I knelt to pray, then, flinging far away Life's garden weeds, that throng our footsteps free, Choking the seed by angels strewn, to bear The flower of Plope for Joy that is to be. Santk Susanne. 212 September 23D. September 24.TH. September 25TH 213 September 26th. Have patience with me ! on the seaward way I linger, for one gesture of farewell. The bridge is crossed that led, oh ! path of peace, To holy vespers in the twilight aisle. The gate is closed — the air without is drear. Look back ! the dome ! gorgeous in sunset still — I see it — soul is concentrate in sight — The dome is gone — gone seems the heaven with it. Night hides my sorrow from me. Oh, my Rome, As I have loved thee, rest God's love with thee ! Rome. September 27TH. But here the device of the spiral can save us. We must make the round, but we may make it with an upward in- clination. " Let there be light ! " is sometimes said in ac- cents so emphatic, that the universe remembers and cannot forget it. We carry our problem slowly forward. W T ith all the ups and downs of every age, humanity constantly rises. Individuals may preserve all its early delusions, commit all its primitive crimes; but to the body of civilized mankind, the return to barbarism is impossible. Changes in American Society. September 28th. Though worn in weary ways of thought, The lonely soul eat pilgrim-bread; Though smiling Beauty in thy path Her banquet of delights should spread; 'Tis but the phantom of an hour That fades before thy waking glance, And not that high ideal of thought Which forms the bounds of hope and chance. Entbehren. 214 September 26th. September 27TH. September 28th. 215 September 29TH. What shall be the gods declare not, — They who stamp Love's burning coin Into spangles of a moment, Into stars that deathless shine. Oh ! the foolish music lingers, For the theme is heavenly dear : I expect you in September, With the glories of the year. The Summons. September 30TH. Dr. Howe was no holiday soldier. When he threw his fresh youth into the wavering scale of human freedom, he had counted the cost and foreseen the outlay. As he had joined the Greeks in the character of a true champion, so in later life it never became his office to revile or undervalue them. . . . Going step by step with them through their heroic strug- gles, he formed a hero's estimate of a people outraged and oppressed, who had, after long-enforced endurance, at last found means to vindicate their claim to national existence. Memoir of Dr. Howe. 2l6 September 29TH. September 30TH. 217 OCTOBER October ist. 'Twere well to pour the soul out In one convulsive fit, And rend the heart with weeping, If Love were loosed from it. But all the secret sorrow That underlies our lives Must wait the true solution That great progression gives. Those griefs so widely gathered, Those deep, abyssmal chords, Broken by wailing music Too passionate for words, Find gentle reconcilement In some serener breast, And touch with deeper pathos Its symphonies of rest. The Nursery October 2d. A quiet tone, that maketh known A spirit passing by ; A breath of prayer on the midnight air, And I am gone for aye. Mortal and Immortai 220 October ist, October 2D. October 30. I feel much impressed, almost startled, when I contem- plate the change which a right understanding of the nature and office of money would bring about in the world. Money is neither power, merit, nor happiness. It is, like fire, a good servant, but a bad master. Men, Women, and Money. October 4.TH. Beauties have their hour, Safely perched on the spring-budding tree : For the ripened soul is trust and power, And beyond, the calm eternity. The Last Bird. October 5TH. From the hurried city fleeing, From the dusty men and ways, In my golden sheltered valley, Count I yet some sunny days. Golden, for the ripened Autumn Kindles there its yellow blaze; And the fiery sunshine haunts it Like a ghost of summer days. In my Valley 222 October 30. October 4TH. October 5TH. October 6th. I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps ; I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps. His day is marching on. Battle-Hymn of the Republic. October jtyl. From all these Western splendors can this shallow soul turn away? From these golden fields whose overflow gives Europe food, while her human overflow gives them labor? From this large construction of human right, which lifts the cruel yoke from the neck of labor, and gives him who earns the livelihood of many his own life to enjoy and perfect? From this holy record of pious endeavor, from these splendid achievements of soul in- spired by freedom, thou canst go, joyous and triumphant, to pay homage to the lies which are no longer believed by those who profess them; lies whose fallacy America ex- poses every day and hour to the detection of the world. Modern Society. October 8th. Nay ! never flee, but stand, Your good sword in your hand, And cry your watchword true. Drive the pursuer back ! The foe upon your track Is mortal, even as you. 1S30 and 1853. 224 October 6th. October 7th. October 8th. 225 October 9TH. But when I move reluctant lips For holy Justice, human Right, The sacred cause I strive to plead Lends me its favor and its might. And I must argue from the faith Which gave the fervor of my youth, Or keep such silence as yon stars, That only look and live God's' truth. An Apology. October ioth. So the writer first saw Rome in the winter of 1843. Her walls seemed those of a mighty sepulchre, in which even the new-born babe was born into death. The stagnation of thought, the prohibition of question, the denial of progress! Her ministers had a sweet Lethean draught with which to lull the first clamors of awakening life, to quiet the first promptings of individual thought. It was the draught of Circe, fragrant but fatal. And those who fed upon it became pathetic caricatures of humanity. .Margaret Fuller. October iith. Think how little is in Nature, if in littleness of eye You resume it from your chamber, or your carriage roll- ing by. Merely shabby ancient mountains, and a tiresome old sea, Slow the rivers, dull the forest, adding weary tree to •tree. A Word with the Brownings. 226 October 9TH. October ioth. October iith. October 12th. I, the Mistress of the Valley, In the twilight soft and dim, Hold the headway of my fancies 'Gainst the evening shadows grim. In the distance strives the streamlet With the neighbor's rustic flute, In the boughs the breeze doth nestle, And all other things are mute. The Two Stars. October 13TH. In America we have religious liberty. This does not mean that a man has morally the right to have no religion, but that the very nature of religion requires that he should hold his own convictions above the ordinances of others. The Greeks have religious liberty, whose idea is rather this, that people may believe much as they please, provided they adhere outwardly to the national church. From the Oak to the Olive. October 14.TH. Pass hence then, the friends I gathered, a goodly company, All ye that have manhood in you, go, perish for Liberty ! But I and the babes God gave me will wait with uplifted hearts, With the firm smile ready to kindle, and the will to perform our parts. The Flag. 228 October ijth, October 13TH. October 14.TH, 229 October 15TH. As Pate's kaleidoscopic angles turn Thou shalt behold great burthens poised and held In smallest grasp, thro' Wisdom's leverage. Thou shalt allow what patient hearts attend The helpless cradle, without hope or love Between its narrow bounds, and God's immense. Fanny Kemble's Child. October i6th. The ministrations of art to ethics are indeed unspeakably grand and helpful. The cathedrals of the Old World, and its rich and varied galleries, preserve for us the fresh and naive spirit of mediaeval piety. Religious art, indeed, be- comes almost secularized by its repetitions; yet each of its great works has the isolation of its own atmosphere, and speaks its own language, which we reverently learn while we look upon it. Changes in American Society. October 17TH. Oh ! if He watches, as I know, Safe let Him keep our rest, And give my little ones and me The shelter of His breast. No harm shall come on earth, we trust; But, if mischance must be, Most let Him help those weary souls That struggle with the sea ! A Wild Night. 230 October 15TH. October i6th. October 17TH. 231 October i8th. Sublime and poor the baids of old Their heavenly message heard and told, Sequestered from the human crowd, Who heed but warnings large and loud. Nor velvet robe the prophet had, In homely garments bound and clad; Nor dainty table gave them seat Who with the gods might take their meat. Meditation. October 19TH. The experience of those years of unceasing warfare, as briefly recounted from time to time by Dr. Howe, reminded one of Paul's synopsis of his years of trial. " In journey- ings often, in perils of robbers, in weariness and painfulness, in watching often, in hunger and thirst, in cold and naked- ness." In the beleaguered city, fiery death without the walls, famine and fever within. On the battle-field, with com- rades falling around him. On the deck of the war-ship, amid the roar of cannon. On the march and beside the camp-fire with the little Greek army, hunted from one fastness to another, poorly armed and worse provisioned, but undaunted and indomitable. Like the rest, he fed poorly or fasted. Like them, he slept upon the ground. But their fight was his fight, only because it was the fight of humanity. Memoir of Dr. Howe. October 2oth. Better let them build who rear the house of nations Than that Fate should rock it to foundation stone : Leave the earth her storms, the stars their perturbations, Steadfast welfare stays where Justice binds her zone. Welcome. 232 OCTOBER ibTH. October k/th. October 2oth. October 2ist. Thou wilt accept a title, empty as an egg-shell, for a thing truly noble ! Thou wilt call a courtier's grimace po- lite, a courtesan's fashion elegant ! Thou wilt curry favor in a vulgar court, courtesying low to a prince of harlequins and harlots ! Thou, child of the Puritans, wilt kneel and kiss the hand which, still and sole, disputes with Christ the mastery of the world ! Then art thou simply an anach- ronism ! Some are born into the world centuries before their time, some, centuries after it. Modern Society. October 22D. The steady spheres of God outvie The fitful meteors of the brain; These may be wanting to our need, To those we never look in vain. One Word more with E. B. B. October 230. Such a heart I'd bear in my bosom, that, threading the crowded streets, My face should shed joy unlooked for on every poor soul one meets ; And such wisdom should crown my forehead, that, coming where counsels stand, I should carry the thoughts of justice, and stablish the weal of the land. A Vision of I'alm Sunday. 234 October 2ist. October 22D. October 23U. 235 October 24.TH. The statements of Margaret's friends touch us with their account of the chanties which this poor woman was able to afford through economy and self-sacrifice. When she al- lowed herself only the bare necessaries of living and diet, she could have the courage to lend fifty dollars to an artist whom she deemed even poorer than herself. Rich indeed was this generous heart, to an extent undreamed of by wealthy collectors and pleasure-seekers. Margaret Fuller. October 25TH. Hast thou ever paused, despairing, At a block of Parian stone ? Life and form within thee bearing, Dreams of Godlike beauty sharing, Dimly hoping, faintly daring To develop the unknown? Not to bear ignoble traces Hath this mountain crystal grown. But that all celestial graces, Shining out through marble faces, Should make glad earth's lonely places With a glory of their own. Correspondence. October 26th. Yet surely should the parent's voice be welcome to the child, Whether it come at morn or night, in gentle tones or wild; And I, O Father ! when Thy will shall call my soul away, May I as calmly hear Thy word, as placidly obey ! Ashes of Roses. 236 October 24TH. October 25TH. October 26th. 237 October 27TH. Of all arts, music is the one most intimately interwoven with the ethical consciousness of our own time. The ora- torios of Handel and of Mendelssohn so blend the sacred text and the divine music, that we think of the two to- gether, and almost as of things so wedded by God, that man must not seek to put them asunder. When I have sat to sing in the chorus of the " Messiah," and have heard the tenor take up the sweet burden of " Comfort ye, my people ! " I have felt the whole chain of divine consolation which those historic words express, and which link the prophet of pre-Christian times to the saints and sinners of to-day. Changes in American Society. October 28th. Honor to the heart of love, Honor to the peaceful will, Slow to threaten, strong to move, Swift to render good for ill ! Glory crowns his end, And the captive's friend From his ashes makes us freemen still. Parricide. October 29TH. Ye Sibyl Arts, in one stern knot Be all your offices combined ! Stand close, while Courage draws the lot, The destiny of human kind. And if that destiny could fail, The sun should darken in the sky, The eternal bloom of Nature pale, And God, and Truth, and Freedom die ! Our Orders. 238 October 27TH. October 28th. October 29TH. 239 October 30TH. This outward compression and inward latitude is always a dangerous symptom. It points to practical irreligion, an ever widening distance between a man's inward convictions and his outward practice. From the Oak to the Olive. October 31ST. Yes, but the Chaos knew the command of its master, Sleeked its black roughness, and sank at his feet like a watch -dog. " 'Twas but the threshold I kept of thine uncounted treas- ures ! Take them un wasted, Master, bring out their beauties; Fling to the wondering deep the new sun and the planets, Build in the infinite largeness the heavens that shall praise Thee ! " The Sermon of Spring. 240 October 30TH. October 31ST. 241 NOVEMBER November ist. Me shalt thou quicken unto life renewed, Thou living brightness, falling on dead faith, Scattering my patient gloom, as one returned From golden travels his glad lesson saith, And, telling of far climes and fairy pleasures, Makes rich the hearer's heart with fancied treasures. Mystic — not Mysterious. November 2D. The romance of charity easily interests the public. Its laborious details and duties repel and weary the many, and find fitting ministers only in a few spirits of rare and un- tiring benevolence. Dr. Howe, after all the laurels and roses of victory, had to deal with the thorny ways of a pro- fession tedious, difficult, and exceptional. He was obliged to create his own working machinery, to drill and instruct his corps of teachers, himself first learning the secrets of the desired instruction. He was also obliged to keep the infant Institution fresh in the interest and good-will of the public, and to give it a place among the recognized benefactions of the Commonwealth. Memoir of Dr. Howe. 244 November ist November 2d. 245 November 3D. Still the pale stranger will come, not in haste indecorous, "With pinions all ruffled, evoked by the wild adjuration : But in state serene; with hands whose soft coolness per- suadeth, And lips that hold their own pause in the music of heaven. Wherefore. November 4TH. I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel : " As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal ! Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, Since God is marching on.'' Battle-Hymn of the Republic. November 5TH. The teachable mind of childhood will easily grasp the distinction between a noble and an ignoble use of money; and in the instruction which may be given on this point the daughters of the household should share equally with the sons. A part of this instruction will consist in the experimental spending of a proper allowance, and in this all children should receive the needed guidance; they should also, as they become able, be associated in such of the household expenditures as may safely be intrusted to them. Men, "Women, and Money. 246 November 3D. November 4TH, November 5TH. 247 November 6th. Thy hollow cheek, and eye of distant light, Won from the chief of men their noblest love; Olympian feasts thy temperance requite, And thy worn weeds a priceless dowry prove. I know not if I've caught the matchless mood In which impassioned Petrarch sang of thee; But this I know, — the world its plenitude May keep, so I may share thy beggary. Philosophy. November 7th. And night is only in Italian eyes, That take in light as the stars give it out, Till they grow introspective, and reveal, Slumbering within, volcanic depths of nature, How still when still, how passionate when roused ! Rome. November 8th. The aesthetic of luxury is a mean and superficial one. The critique of luxury is compliant and cowardly ; and, despite its glittering promise to pay any price for what it desires, luxury orders poorly, pays poorly, and in the end undermines the credit of the state, the very citadel of its solvency. I regret and deplore its prevalence to-day, and consider it not as the safeguard, but as the most dangerous enemy, of republican institutions. Changes in American Society. 248 November 6th. November 7th. November 8th. 249 November 9TH. Like a gracious prophecy Sped where darkling caverns yawn, Like a cheerless winter sea Flushed with crimson dawn, Thine unwonted coming brought More than Nature's rapture-right; From the depth of darkness, taught God could bring the light. Fate that visits us and grieves, Parts from us, love-reconciled, And the wrack of sorrow leaves The glory of the child. Maud. November ioth. A great grieved heart, an iron will, As fearless blood as ever ran; A form elate with nervous strength And fibrous vigour — all a man. A gallant rein, a restless spur, The hand to wield a biting scourge; Small patience for the tasks of Time, Unmeasured power to speed and urge. Not lavishly he casts abroad The glances of an eye intense, And did he smile but once a year, It were a Christmas recompense. The Rough Sketch, Dr. S, G. Howe. 250 November 9TH. November ioth. 251 November iith. So in an atom lies the Infinite, Concentred thou mayst deem it, not confined; So in the narrow prison of thy life, Be conscious of the boundless scope of mind. The Prisoner of Hope. November 12th. How delightful was Italy to Milton ! His Allegro and Penseroso show that he could fully appreciate both its mirth and its majesty. He returns not the less to live out a life of illustrious service in his own country, where his brave heart and philosophic mind were of more avail to his time than even his sacred song to ours. Modern Society. November 13TH. This was my shrift, a breathing after God, A shuddering, rapid glance adown the past, Turned heavenward ere its spectral forms could rise, And with pale chiding set my soul aghast. Then, silence — then the touch of angels' wings Winnowed away that bitter grief and doubt ; And then I left my twilight thoughts within, And with me bore Faith's earnest twilight out. Sante Susanna. 252 November iith. November 12th. November 13TH, 253 November 14TH. The word of God once spoken, from truth is never lost; The high command once given, earth guards with jealous cost. By this perplexing lesson, men build their busy schemes : " The way of comfort lies not, kind Eden, through thy dreams." The New Exodus. November 15TH. Death gives an unexpected completeness to the view of individual character. The secret of a noble life is only fully unfolded when its outward envelope has met the fate of all things perishable. And so the mournful tragedy just recounted set its seal upon a career whose endeavor and achievement the world is bound to hold dear. Margaret Fuller. November i6th. They are coming, O our brothers! they are coming; From the formless distance creeps the growing sound, Like a rill-fed torrent, in whose rapid summing Stream doth follow stream, till waves of joy abound. These have languished in the shadow of the prison, Long with hunger pains and bitter fever low; Welcome back our lost, from living graves arisen, From the wild despite and malice of the foe. Welcome. 254 November 14.TH. November 15TH. November i6th. 255 November 17TH. Keep back your tunes, ye viols sweet, That poured delight from other lands ! Rouse there the dancer's restless feet : The trumpet leads our warrior bands. Our Orders. November i8th. Refusing images, but clinging to pictures; allowing the Scriptures to the common people, but discouraging their use of the same; with an unmarried hierarchy of some education, and a married secular clergy of none, — the Greek church seems to me to be too flatly in contradic- tion with itself and with the spirit of the age to maintain long a social supremacy, a moral efficiency. From the Oak to the Olive. November 19TH. Her voice was borrowed from the choir That rings the vernal years; Her temper was ethereal fire That calmed itself in tears. Some nameless touch of God's delight Fell on her, as she lay An infant, dreaming heavenly dreams, And never passed away. Sue. 2^6 November 17TH. November i8th. November 19TH. 257 November 2oth. A Queen, whose airy footsteps spurned the ground, Whose fingers were too fair for daintiest lips, Mends her worn kerchief for a felon's end, Scarce wondering at the desolate eclipse. As it is November 2ist. Love of ornament is by no means synonymous with love of the beautiful. The taste which overloads dress and ar- chitecture with superfluous irrelevancies, is often quite in opposition to that true sense of beauty which is indispen- sable to the artist and precious to the philosopher. " To -a/or," the Greeks said. Was it a na'ive utterance on their part? Was it through their poverty of expression, or their want of experience, that the same word with them signified the good and the beautiful? No ! It was through the depth of their insight, and the power of their mental appreciation, that they so stamped this golden word as that it should show the supreme of form on one of its faces, and the supreme of spirit on the other. Changes in American Society. November 22D. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on. Battle-Hymn of the Republic. 258 November 2oth, November 2ist. November 22D. 259 November 23D. The shell of objects inwardly consumed Will stand till some convulsive wind awakes; Such sense hath Fire to waste the heart of things, Nature, such love to hold the form she makes. Thus wasted joys will show their early bloom, Yet crumble at the breath of a caress; The golden fruitage hides the scathed bough : Snatch it, thou scatterest wide its emptiness. My Last Dance. November 24TH. The name of Laura Bridgman will long continue to suggest to the hearer one of the most brilliant exploits of philan- thropy, modern or ancient. Much of the good that good men do soon passes out of the remembrance of busy gen- erations, each succeeding to each, with its own special inheritance of labor and interest. But it will be long before the world shall forget the courage and patience of the man who, in the very bloom of his manhood, sat down to besiege this almost impenetrable fortress of darkness and isolation, and, after months of labor, carried within its walls the divine conquest of life and of thought. Memoir of Dr. Howe. 260 November 23D. November 24TH. 261 'November 25TH. I felt the silence holy, till a note Fell, as a sound of ravishment from heaven — Fell, as a star falls, trailing sound for light; And, ere its thread of melody was broken, From the serene sprang other sounds, its fellows, That fluttered back celestial welcomings. Astonished, penetrate, too past myself To know I sinned in speaking, where a breath Less exquisite was sacrilege, my lips Gave passage to one cry : " God ! what is that? " (Oh ! not to know what has no peer on earth !) And one, not distant, stooped to me and said : " If ever thou recall thy friend afar, Let him but be commemorate with this hour, The first in which thou heard'st our Nightingale." Rome. November 26th. Oh ! not amiss the Master Bard Is pictured to the vulgar mind Possessed of inner sight above; The poet at his song is blind. He sees not circumstance, nor friend; His listeners press not in on him; Cloud-rapt in possibility, His thoughts and ways are far and dim. The Joy of Poesy. 262 November 26th. 263 November 27TH. Children should be taught to consider what outlays are necessary, which are useful, which demanded by charity, which superfluous. The Scripture saying is, that " Every wise woman buildeth her house," while " the foolish pluck- eth it down with her hands." It is a serious thought that the little girls on the school bench, using or misusing their weekly allowance, are learning either to build their future house, or to pluck it down. Men, Women, and Money. November 28th. Thus the living and dying daily Flash forward their wants and words, While still on Thought's slender railway, Sit scathless the little birds : They heed not the sentence dire By magical hands exprest, And only the sun's warm fire Stirs softly their happy breast. On and on and ever on ! God next ! The Telegrams. 264 NoVEiMBER 27TH. November 28th. 265 November 29TH. Father of great mercy ! hear me mildly : One I love is tried and hindered sore; For the harrows of temptation wildly Tear his green and blooming purpose o'er. Send thine angels, as the Spring her beauties Rains on thorny branches wild and sear, Lighting up Life's worn and wintry duties With the glories they were made to bear. Slow the answer gathers, " Stay thy pleading; From his birth my help around him lies : He, the angel in his breast unheeding, Should escape the legions of the skies." A Woman's Prayer. November 30TH. No one has any reason to be surprised at any new mani- festation of human folly. Yet I am sometimes surprised, to-day, by the disrespect which is often shown to the word " Protestant." This name dates, at farthest, from the time of Luther, but the fact for which it stands is as old as human history. Moses made a protest when he led his people out of the luxury and slavery of Egypt to find the free hills of Judea, and to build on one of them a temple to the God of freedom. Christ made His protest against the hypocrisy and injus tice of the old social and ecclesiastical order. Modern Society. 266 November 29TH. November 30TH. 267 DECEMBER December ist. Little Bird that singest Far atop this warm December day, Heaven bestead thee, that thou wingest, Ere the welcome song is done, thy way To more certain weather, Where, built high and solemnly, the skies, Shaken by no storm together, Fixed in vaults of steadfast sapphire rise ! The Last Bird. December 2d. To cheer my journey what remains Toward the rude heights where Winter reigns? What love-nursed thought shall shield my breast Warmer than cloak or sable vest? One hope serene all comfort brings, — Who made thy bonds did lend thy wings; Who sends thee from this faery reign Once brought thee here, and may again. Farewell to Havana. 270 December ist. December 2D. 71 December 3D. When all that could be known of Margaret was known, it became evident that there was nothing of her which was not heroic in intention ; nothing which, truly interpreted, could turn attention from a brilliant exterior to meaner traits allowed and concealed. That she had faults we need not deny; nor that, like other human beings, she needs must have said and done at times what she might after- wards have wished better said, better done. Margaret Fuller. December 4TH. Well held the ancients to their ministration of tire That rids man's heart and home of their festering burthen. Even the sacrifice brought to bleed at God's altar Should not survive the mood of devotion that urged it. They, at once ceasing, shall thus be together remembered. Why could the man not die with his day of dominion? His work at end, wherefore live to be scantily pensioned By hearts that grudge the reward when it follows the labor. Wherefore. December 5TH. She sits among th' eternal hills, Their crown, thrice glorious and dear; Her voice is as a thousand tongues Of silver fountains, gurgling clear. Her breath is prayer, her life is love, And worship of all lovely things; Her children have a gracious port, Her beggars show the blood of kings. The City of my Love. 272 December id. December 4th. December ;th. 273 December 6th. Thought and conscience are progressive. Christ's pro- gressive labor carried further the Jewish faith and tenets which were religious before he came, but which became ir- religious in resisting the further and finer conclusions to which he led. " I come not to destroy, but to fulfil." Progress does fulfil in the spirit, even though it destroy in the letter. From the Oak to the Olive. December jth. I am not with you, sisters, in your talk; I sit not in your fancied judgment-seat : Not thus the sages in their council walk, Not in this wise the calm great spirits meet. My life has striven for broader scope than yours; The daring of its failure and its fact Have taught how deadly difficult it is To suit the high endeavor with an act. The Tea- Party, December 8th. On primal rocks she wrote her name, Her towers were reared on holy graves; The golden seed that bore her came Swift-winged with prayer o'er ocean waves. Our Country. 274 December 6th. December jth. December 8th. 275 December 9TH. Let us, therefore, by all means have saints in the world, keeping to their pure standard, and recommending it more by their actions than by their professions. But these saints must be brave as well as pure. Unworthy doctrines musl not escape their reprobation. When a just cause is con- temned, they must stand by it. If the world shall cast them out in consequence, it will not be their fault. Changes in American Society. December ioth. So thou art hid again, and wilt not come For any knocking at the veiled door; Nor mother-pangs, nor nature, can restore The heart's delight and blossom of thy home. And I with others, in the outer court, Must sadly follow the excluding will, In painful admiration of the skill Of God, who speaks his sweetest sentence short. Remembrance. December iith. But for thee my fancy Chose these garments white, Wove the tufted roses But for thy delight; But for thee this diamond, Darling of the mine, Glistens in the ear-drop Like a tear of thine, — Like a tear, that, welling From thy happy breast, Where thy vows were whispered, Waiteth to be blest. Eros Departs. 276 December 9TH. December ioth. December iith. December 12TH. Tedious and difficult as the education of Laura Bridg- man must have been, one may surely envy Dr. Howe the sublime joy of revealing the outer universe of space and life, and the inner world of thought, to this child destined to awaken so keen an interest throughout the civilized world. We are told that Christ gave thanks to God be- cause His truth had been revealed to babes. Dr. Howe surely shared this devout thankfulness when he saw the light of thought and of civilization enter the mind of one who had seemed destined to remain not only in darkness, but also in that mental solitude which is worse than the shadow of death. Memoir of Dr. Howe. December 13TH. When the moment comes to claim him that must come to claim us all, Hearts that cherish human longing will be darkened by his fall ; But immortal Truth shall welcome her adorer to her breast, Saying, " Things are changed between us now. On earth I was thy guest." From a Leaf of the Bryant Chaplet. December 14.TH. Welcome again to thy father's roof — Thou dreamer of innocent dreams ! Flower of pure and constant breath, Shadow of sunniest gleams ! With the eyes that speak for the untried lips, And the little, stammering tongue, And the arms, like an amulet of price, O'er the Mother's shoulders flung. Baby's Return. 278 December 12TH. December 13TH December 14TH. 279 December 15TH. Does society inherit? Is man the heir of man? Whence come those creatures of the present clay who smile and shrug their shoulders, and feebly say, " We don't protest. Our fathers did something of the kind, upon what ground we cannot possibly imagine. But we are quite of another sort. We don't protest " ? • Modern Society. December i6th. She wore the radiance of her youth As though she felt it not; And while she held you with her speech Her beauty was forgot. Twas hers to move in fearlessness, And throne herself at ease ; Too royal were her gifts, that she Should condescend to please. Sue. December 17TH. My wine is not of the choicest, yet bears it an honest brand; And the bread that I bid you lighten, I break with no sparing hand : But pause, ere ye pass to taste it, one act must accom- plished be, — Salute the flag in its virtue, before ye sit down with me. The Flag. 280 December 15TH December i6th. December 17TH. 281 December i8th. The sincere reader of the New Testament will be ever more and more disposed to make his religion a matter lying directly between himself and the Divine Being. His out- ward conformity to all just laws and good institutions will be not the less, but the more, perfect because his scale of obligation is an individual one; the spring and motive of his actions a deeply inward one. From the Oak to the Olive. December 19TH. The winter, like a college boy's vacation, Seemed endless to anticipate, and lay Stretched in a boundless glittering before me, Unfathomable in its free delight. Or if horizon bounded like the sea, I saw new seas beyond — the sweeping line Limits the known, but not the possible. Rome. December 2oth. The flower of my love is sleeping, Locked in his icy funeral mound; The Frost, stern sentinel, is keeping Earth's tranced blossoms under ground. The Spring shall bring the sweet appearing Of buds, her radiant breath shall free; But my heart blossom, most endearing, Shall rest, a flower of Memory. A sterner sentinel is waiting Our ban of severance to remove : Death must resolve our separation, Chill Herald of the Spring of Love. A Winter Thought. 282 December iSth. December i9TH« December 2oth. 283 December 2ist. Dr. Howe, as the companion of those days can testify, kept in these new surroundings his own quiet dignity and modesty. In the highest company one felt his height above that of other men. And this was shown in his judgment of men and of things, in his true kindness and geniality, and in his transparent simplicity and truthful- ness. The presence and praise of people of rank neither uplifted nor abashed him. The humanity which he re- spected in himself he regarded equally in others, but the fact itself, not its adventitious trappings, claimed his ser- vice and homage. Memoir of Dr. Howe. December 22D. When the last true heart lies bloodless, when the fierce and the false have won, I'll press in turn to my bosom each daughter and either son : Bid them loose the flag from its bearings, and we'll lay us down to rest, With the glory of home about us, and its freedom locked in our breast. The Flag. December 23D. Thou shalt learn What Women, glorified through tears, have gone Uncanonized of men, to that best heaven Where God consoles his martyrs. One who walked From the throne's splendor to the bloody block, Said, " This completes my glory ! " with a smile Which still illuminates men's thoughts of her. Fanny Kemble's Child. 284 December 2ist December 22D. December 23D. 285 December 24TH. The figure of the infant Christ dwells always in our mind, accompanied by that of the gracious mother who gave him to the world. Let the fact of this great gift prefigure to us the august office of Woman. Hers be it also to preserve and transmit from age to age the Christian doctrine and the Christian faith. And in order that she may fully realize the glory and blessedness of giving, let her remember that what is worthily given to one time is given to all time. Changes in American Society. December 25TH. "Thou wert mine without thy knowing; From this moment's wonder-showing, Pay the debt thy life is owing Burthensome : On the blindness of thy thought Dawns the inner life unsought. Teach as thou thyself art taught; yesn sum." The Vision of Paul December 26th. No idle superstition made him; Nor canst thou, Critic, him unmake ; No sect upreared his holy stature, Beloved for its divineness' sake. He grew not great by priestly cunning, Nor magic gifts, nor Eastern arts : Immortal love sprang up to honor The fair ideal of our hearts. The Christ. 286 December 24TH. December 25TH. December 26th. 287 December 27TH. My remedy for the evil of financial disaccord between husband and wife would require, on the woman's side, a thorough and conscientious training in the use of money, and^a worthy estimate of the opportunities it may afford for the ordering of our lives nobly and virtuously; on the man's side, a respect for the woman as one who is neither disabled nor disqualified for earning her own support; one who, relinquishing a career of free activity in order to become his companion for life, carries her own power and value into the governance of his household, and is entitled to all that may render that service honorable and happy. Men, Women, and Money. December 28th. Still to the spirit of the Past I speak As I discerned it there, in fateful league With wanton weakness, selfishness, and sin : " No good survives the fitness of its time ; The semblance of the most transcendent form That friendship ever mourned in burial, Should it revisit us with churchyard damps And deathly odors scattering from its hair, Were but a thing of ghastliness and dread Fit for exorcisement. Thou hadst thy day ! " Rome. 288 December 27TH. December 28th, 589 December 29TH. Then Love appeared, the hope of ages; Love, sad and strong, with bleeding brow, Wide-wandering as the fertile waters, Asking of Earth, " Why weepest thou?" He came; and men, beneath his urging, No more in doubt and darkness strode, But dared one valorous leap to heaven, Brought thence Divineness, conquered God. 6E02. December 30TH. In what is said, to-day, concerning the motherhood of the human race, the social and spiritual aspects of this great office are not wholly overlooked. It must be remembered that there is also a fatherhood of human society, a vigilance and forethought of benevolence recognized in individuals who devote their best energies to the interests of mankind. The man to whose memory the preceding pages are dedi- cated, is one of those who have best filled this relation to their race. Watchful of its necessities, merciful to its shortcomings, careful of its dignity, and cognizant of its capacity, may the results of his labor be handed down to future generations, and may his name and example be held in loving and lasting remembrance. Memoir of Dr. Howe 290 December 29TH. December 30TH. 291 December 31ST. " What hast thou for thy scattered seed, O Sower of the plain? Where are the many gathered sheaves Thy hope should bring again? " " The only record of my work Lies in the buried grain." " O Conqueror of a thousand fields ! In dinted armor dight, What growths of purple amaranth Shall crown thy brow of might? " " Only the blossom of my life Flung widely in the fight." " What is the harvest of thy saints, O God ! who dost abide ? Where grow the garlands of thy chiefs In blood and sorrow dyed? What have thy servants for their pains? " " This only, — to have tried." Endeavok. 292 December 31ST. 293 Index to Birthdays A B Index to Birthdays C D Index to Birthdays E F Index to Birthdays G H PAGE | Index to Birthdays I J Index to Birthdays K L PAGE NAME Index to Birthdays M ^ N PAGE | NAME Index to Birthdays P Index to Birthdays Q R Index to Birthdays S T Index to Birthdays U V Index to Birthdays W X PAGE NAME Index to Birthdays Y Z THE GEM OF TENNYSON. ZDOHFL^. By Alfred Tennyson. With twenty illustrations by W. L. Taylor, engraved on wood by Andrew, from special sketches made in England expressly for this work, comprising charming bits of English Landscape and Rural Life. Uniform in style with Lee and Shepard's Illustrated Series of Favorite Hymns, Ballads, and Poems. Cloth. Full gilt. Gilt edges (only style this season), J 1.50. The inspiration which poetry gives to the drama and to art is well illustrated in the career of Tennyson's poem, " Dora." It has been retold in a charming drama, is one of the favorite selections for reading in the parlor and on the platform ; the heroine has been idealized by the brush of the artist and the skill of the graver, and now one of the foremost of American artists gives in this volume twenty illustrations of the story, original in conception, graceful and powerful as the theme demands, and with all the accessories of English farm and landscape, costumes, scenery, and interiors, repro- duced from sketches of well-known places. The book is superbly printed, and bound with exquisite taste. (5) WORTH UNTOLD MONEY TO THE GEOWN-UP BABY. jxww^oif m BABY'S KINGDOM. Wherein may be chronicled by the loving mother the story of the jvents, happenings, and cunningness attending the progress of " My Baby," as a memento for grown-up days. Designed and illustrated by Annie F. Cox. Printed in colors. Bound in elegant style. Cloth and gold, $3-75; Turkey and morocco, $7.50; tree ~alf, $7.50; Spanish calf, $7.50. "A beautiful idea beautifully carried out." (15) WELCOME THE COMING, SPEED THE PARTING GUEST. THE GUEST BOOK In which may be recorded the coming and the going of guests, with pages for autographs, incidents, and sketches pertaining to pleasant visits, social circles, and other gatherings. Uniform in style with " Baby's Kingdom." Invented and illustrated by Annib F. Cox. Printed in colors. In rich binding. Cloth and gold, $t-7S '• Turkey morocco, $7.50; tree calf, $7-50; Spanish calf, $7.50. "' The Guest Book' is a new idea that will be quickly appre- ciated in society, because of its utility and entertainment. The artist's work is graceful and good." (16) A BEAUTIFUL AND NOVEL BOOK. MY LADY'S CASKET OF FLOWERS AND JEWELS FOR HER ADORNING, With original designs printed in colors. By Eleanor W. Talbot. Oblong quarto. Cloth, gold and silver colors, full gilt edges. Price $3.75 ; Turkey morocco, $7.50 ; tree calf, $7.50 ; Spanish calf, $7.50. This is a lovely book, suitable for a wedding, birthday, or Christmas present for a lady. Tfce various virt les and graces considered ap- propriate to the gentler sex are here combined with illustrations of different gems and flowers, chosen with reference to their meaning. (17)