Louise Chandler Moulton, Poet and FriendWhiting, Lilian
General
Louise Chandler Moulton, Poet and Friend
Whiting, Lilian
Moulton, Louise Chandler, 1835-1908
"I have never believed in the gloomy and pitiless creed of
the Calvinists. I believe every one is master of his destiny
so far as perfect freedom of choice for good or evil. When
we take the wrong road we do it perhaps in the blindness of
passion, with eyes blind to consequences, minds darkened by
selfish desires, by vanity, false ambitions, and by weakly
yielding to bad influences."
_Canon Bell to Mrs. Moulton_
"I hope you are seeing your way clearly to faith in God and
His dear Son. A sure trust in our Heavenly Father is the
only true consolation in this world of change and sorrow.
That brings peace."
_Lady Henry Somerset to Mrs. Moulton_
"I well understand what you say about looking onward. I
think our eyes are turned that way when the steps of life
lead us nearer to the journey's end with each setting sun.
It is absorbingly interesting. Yes, I believe the love of
God will be closest; and, in the last, victorious."
What the words were to which these were replies may in part be
gathered from the following:
_Mrs. Moulton to William Winter_
DURNHAM HOUSE, CHELSEA, LONDON,
October 3, 1894.
DEAR WILLIE: I hope your lecture last night was a success,
but it seems to me that all you do is. Yes,--how well I
remember that seventieth-birthday breakfast to Dr. Holmes.
We sat very near each other, you and I, and I know how your
words moved me, as well as how they moved Dr. Holmes. I felt
his death very keenly, but I knew him far less than you did.
To know him at all was to love him. How strange that you
should have written of so many great pilgrims into the
unknown. Thank God for your immortal hope. To me the outlook
darkens as I draw nearer and nearer to the end. I am
appalled by the immensity of the universe, and the
nothingness of our little human atom among the infinite
worlds. But God knows what is to come. You are happier than
most in the love that surrounds you.
Thank you a thousand times for your dear letter. If I go to
New York or you come to Boston, do not let us fail to meet,
for the time in which earthly meetings are possible is
short. Oh, how I hope there may be a life to come in which
we shall find lost loves and hopes, and above all, lost
possibilities. I think it is hardest of all to me to think
what I might have been, might have done, and to be so
utterly discontented with myself as I am. If you pray, say a
prayer sometimes for one of the truest and fondest of your
many friends,--this wanderer,
L.C.M.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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