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A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
144
"The
human
mind!
That
lofty
thing,
The
palace
and
the
throne
Where
Reason
sits,
a
sceptred
king,
And
breathes
his
judgment-tone!"
"The
human
soul!
That
startling
thing,
Mysterious
and
sublime;
An
angel
sleeping
on
the
wing,
Worn
by
the
scoffs
of
time.
From
heaven
in
tears
to
earth
it
stole--
That
startling
thing,
the
human
soul."
I
was
just
beginning,
in
my
questionings
as
to
the
meaning
of
life,
to
get
glimpses
of
its
true
definition
from
the
poets,--that
it
is
love,
service,
the
sacrifice
of
self
for
others'
good.
The
lesson
was
slowly
learned,
but
every
hint
of
it
went
to
my
heart,
and
I
kept
in
silent
upon
my
window
wall
reminders
like
that
of
holy
George
Herbert:--
"Be
useful
where
thou
livest,
that
they
may
Both
want
and
wish
thy
pleasing
presence
still.
--Find
out
men's
wants
and
will,
And
meet
them
there.
All
worldly
joys
go
less
To
the
one
joy
of
doing
kindnesses;"
and
that
well-known
passage
from
Talfourd,--
"The
blessings
which
the
weak
and
poor
can
scatter,
Have
their
own
season.
It
is
a
little
thing
to
speak
a
phase
Of
common
comfort,
which,
by
daily
use,
Has
almost
lost
its
sense;
yet
on
the
ear
Of
him
who
thought
to
die
unmourned
't
will
fall
Like
choicest
music."
A
very
familiar
extract
from
Carlos
Wilcox,
almost
the
only
quotation
made
nowadays
from
his
poems,
was
often
on
my
sister
Emilie's
lips,
whose
heart
seemed
always
to
be
saying
to
itself:--
"Pour
blessings
round
thee
like
a
shower
of
gold!"
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