The Soul, Cramped Among The Petty Vexations

It Is A Conquest When We Can Lift Ourselves Above The Annoyances Of Circumstances Over Which We Have No Control; But It Is A Greater Victory When We Can Make Those Circumstances Our Helpers,--when We Can Appreciate The Good There Is In Them. It Has Often Seemed To Me As If Life Stood Beside Me, Looking Me In The Face, And Saying, "child, You Must Learn To Like Me In The Form In Which You See Me, Before I Can Offer Myself To You In Any Other Aspect.

Everything In Nature Has Its Own Intrinsic Charm, As The Work Of Its Creator's Hand; But The Chief Beauty Of The Whole Lies In Its Suggested Relations To Humanity. Things Announce And Wait For Persons. The House Would Not Have Been Thus Beautifully Built And Furnished, Except For An Expected Tenant.

The New Hampshire Girls Who Came To Lowell Were Descendants Of The Sturdy Backwoodsmen Who Settled That State Scarcely A Hundred Years Before.... They Were Earnest And Capable; Ready To Undertake Anything That Was Worth Doing. My Dreamy, Indolent Nature Was Shamed Into Activity Among Them. They Gave Me A Larger, Firmer Ideal Of Womanhood.

Because Its Myriad Glimmering Plumes Like A Great Army's Stir And Wave; Because Its Golden Billows Blooms, The Poor Man's Barren Walks To Lave: Because Its Sun-shaped Blossoms Show How Souls Receive The Light Of God, And Unto Earth Give Back That Glow I Thank Him For The Goldenrod.

No One Can Feel More Gratefully The Charm Of Noble Scenery, Or The Refreshment Of Escape Into The Unspoiled Solitudes Of Nature, Than The Laborer At Some Close In-door Employment.