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A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
108
Hard
work,
however,
has
its
own
illumination--if
done
as
duty
which
worldliness
has
not;
and
worldliness
seems
to
be
the
greatest
temptation
and
danger
Of
young
people
in
this
generation.
Poetry
is
one
of
the
angels
whose
presence
will
drive
out
this
sordid
demon,
if
anything
less
than
the
Power
of
the
Highest
can.
But
poetry
is
of
the
Highest.
It
is
the
Divine
Voice,
always,
that
we
recognize
through
the
poet's,
whenever
he
most
deeply
moves
our
souls.
Reason
and
observation,
as
well
as
my
own
experience,
assure
me
also
that
it
is
great--poetry
even
the
greatest--which
the
youngest
crave,
and
upon
which
they
may
be
fed,
because
it
is
the
simplest.
Nature
does
not
write
down
her
sunsets,
her
starry
skies,
her
mountains,
and
her
oceans
in
some
smaller
style,
to
suit
the
comprehension
of
little
children;
they
do
not
need
any
such
dilution.
So
I
go
back
to
the
"American
First
Class
Book,"
and
affirm
it
to
have
been
one
of
the
best
of
reading-books,
because
it
gave
us
children
a
taste
of
the
finest
poetry
and
prose
which
had
been
written
in
our
English
tongue,
by
British
and
by
American
authors.
Among
the
pieces
which
left
a
permanent
impression
upon
my
mind
I
recall
Wirt's
description
of
the
eloquent
blind
preacher
to
whom
he
listened
in
the
forest
wilderness
of
the
Blue
Ridge,
a
remarkable
word-portrait,
in
which
the
very
tones
of
the
sightless
speaker's
voice
seemed
to
be
reproduced.
I
believe
that
the
first
words
I
ever
remembered
of
any
sermon
were
those
contained
in
the
grand,
brief
sentence,--"Socrates
died
like
a
philosopher;
but
Jesus
Christ--like
a
God!"
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