The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty YearsHarper, Ida Husted
History
The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years
Harper, Ida Husted
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906
Five weeks have been spent in Hamilton and to what purpose? Has my
mind advanced either in Virtue or Literature? I fear that every
moment has not been profitably spent. O, may this careless mind be
more watchful in the future! O, may the many warnings which we
every day receive, tend to make me more attentive to what is right!
We were cautioned by our dear Teacher to-day to beware of
self-esteem and of all signs that would indicate an untruth. We
were referred to the condition of Ananias and Sapphira, who
intended to deceive the Apostle. Would that I were wholly free from
that same Evil Spirit which tempted those persons in ancient times.
The Spirit of Truth must have dominion in the mind in order to
attain a state of happiness.
* * * * *
Resolves and resolves fill up my time. I resolve at night to do
better on the morrow, and when the morrow comes and I mingle with
my companions all the resolutions are obliterated.... In the
afternoon of Seventh day Deborah accompanied the scholars to Town
and visited the Academy of Arts and Sciences; beautiful indeed was
the sight. Nature, how bounteous and varied are thy works! On
beholding the splendid scene I was ready to exclaim, "O, Miracle of
Miracles," with the celebrated Naturalist when speaking of the
metamorphoses of insects.
Her eyes troubled her then, as all through life, and in grieving over
it she says: "Often does their non-conformance mortify this frail heart
when attempting to read in class.... I arose at half-past five this
morning. [January 15.] I find it so much more advantageous." But the
next day she sleeps till half-past six and laments the fact.
Received a severe reproof from Deborah this evening on account of
the listlessness which prevailed in the school, also the immorality
of some of the pupils' minds. O, that I could feel perfectly clear
of all the deviations which have been enumerated. O, Morality, that
I could say I possessed thy charms! O, the happiness of an innocent
mind, would that I could say mine was so, but it is too far from
it. I think so much of my resolutions to do better that even my
dreams are filled with these desires.
The sin thus bitterly bewailed consisted in neglecting to use "thee"
and "thou" in addressing her schoolmates. She would wake up in the
night and mourn over it. One would judge from Deborah's continual
lectures that the school was made up of a lot of desperately wicked
girls sent her to be reformed, instead of a band of demure and saintly
little Quaker maidens. On the 31st Susan writes:
Our class has not recited in Philosophy, Chemistry or Physiology,
nor have we read, since the 20th of this month, for the reason of
there being such a departure among the scholars from the paths of
rectitude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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