Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe
History
Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910
Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe
Authors, American -- 19th century -- Biography; Feminists -- United States -- Biography; Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910
edition of "Les Misérables," which I am at last glad never to have read,
as I shall enjoy it, _D.V._, in some of the long reading days of
summer....
Your ownty donty
MA.
P.S. Before the Libbie sale I wickedly bid $25 upon a small but very
precious missal. It brought $825!!
* * * * *
When she reached Oak Glen in mid-June, she felt a "constant
discouragement"; was lonely, and missed the cheerful converse of her
club and suffrage friends. "My work seems to me to amount to nothing at
all." She soon revived, and "determined to fulfil in due order all the
tasks undertaken for this summer; so attacked the Kappa poem and wrote
at a stretch twenty-two verses, of four lines each, which was pretty
much my day's work. Read in Martineau, in J. F. C., a little Greek, and
the miserable 'Les Misérables.'"
She decided to hold some conversations in the Unitarian parsonage, and
wrote out the following topics for them:--
"Useful undertakings in this city as existing and needed."
"How to promote public spirit in American men and women."
"How to attain a just average estimate of our own people."
"How far is it wise to adopt the plan of universal reading for ourselves
and our young people?"
"In what respects do the foreign civilizations retard, in what do they
promote the progress of our own civilization?"
In August she preached to the women in Sherborn Prison, choosing a "text
of cheer and uplifting: 'Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory.' Read part of Isaiah 40th. Said that I had wished to bring them
some word of comfort and exhilaration. Pointed out how the Lord's Prayer
begins with solemn worship and ascription, aspiring to God's Kingdom,
praying for daily bread and for deliverance from temptation and all
evil; at the close it rises into this joyous strain, 'Thine is the
kingdom,' et cetera. Tried to show how the kingdom is God, the great
providential order, before and beyond all earthly government; then the
power, that of perfect wisdom and goodness, the power to know and rule
all things, to be everywhere and ever present, to regulate the mighty
sweep of stars and planets, and, at the same time, to take note of the
poorest and smallest of us; the glory first of the visible universe,
glory of the day and night, of the seasons, glory of the redeeming power
of truth, glory of the inexhaustible patience, of boundless compassion
and love."
She enjoyed the visit to the prison and was thankful for it.
A few days later, at a meeting in Newport, she heard a lady demand that
the children of genius should be set apart from others for special
education and encouragement, receiving a pension even in their early
years. She demanded colleges of genius, and a retreat for people of
genius. By thus fostering juvenile promise, we should produce giants and
demigods.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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