The Story of My Life: With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert MacyKeller, Helen
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The Story of My Life: With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy
Keller, Helen
Deafblind women -- United States -- Biography; Keller, Helen, 1880-1968
I count it one of the sweetest privileges of my life to have known and
conversed with many men of genius. Only those who knew Bishop Brooks can
appreciate the joy his friendship was to those who possessed it. As a
child I loved to sit on his knee and clasp his great hand with one of
mine, while Miss Sullivan spelled into the other his beautiful words
about God and the spiritual world. I heard him with a child's wonder
and delight. My spirit could not reach up to his, but he gave me a real
sense of joy in life, and I never left him without carrying away a fine
thought that grew in beauty and depth of meaning as I grew. Once, when I
was puzzled to know why there were so many religions, he said: "There is
one universal religion, Helen--the religion of love. Love your Heavenly
Father with your whole heart and soul, love every child of God as much
as ever you can, and remember that the possibilities of good are greater
than the possibilities of evil; and you have the key to Heaven." And
his life was a happy illustration of this great truth. In his noble
soul love and widest knowledge were blended with faith that had become
insight. He saw
God in all that liberates and lifts,
In all that humbles, sweetens and consoles.
Bishop Brooks taught me no special creed or dogma; but he impressed upon
my mind two great ideas--the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of
man, and made me feel that these truths underlie all creeds and forms of
worship. God is love, God is our Father, we are His children; therefore
the darkest clouds will break and though right be worsted, wrong shall
not triumph.
I am too happy in this world to think much about the future, except
to remember that I have cherished friends awaiting me there in God's
beautiful Somewhere. In spite of the lapse of years, they seem so close
to me that I should not think it strange if at any moment they should
clasp my hand and speak words of endearment as they used to before they
went away.
Since Bishop Brooks died I have read the Bible through; also some
philosophical works on religion, among them Swedenborg's "Heaven and
Hell" and Drummond's "Ascent of Man," and I have found no creed or
system more soul-satisfying than Bishop Brooks's creed of love. I knew
Mr. Henry Drummond, and the memory of his strong, warm hand-clasp is
like a benediction. He was the most sympathetic of companions. He knew
so much and was so genial that it was impossible to feel dull in his
presence.
I remember well the first time I saw Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. He had
invited Miss Sullivan and me to call on him one Sunday afternoon. It was
early in the spring, just after I had learned to speak. We were shown
at once to his library where we found him seated in a big armchair by an
open fire which glowed and crackled on the hearth, thinking, he said, of
other days.
"And listening to the murmur of the River Charles," I suggested.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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