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diff --git a/34106.txt b/34106.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c1ee23 --- /dev/null +++ b/34106.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3496 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Women Letters from the House of +Alcott, by Louisa M. Alcott, et al. + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Little Women Letters from the House of Alcott + +Author: Louisa M. Alcott, et al. + +Release Date: October 20, 2010 [EBook #34106] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE WOMEN LETTERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Ernest Schaal, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + LITTLE WOMEN LETTERS + FROM THE + HOUSE OF ALCOTT + + + + + [Illustration: _Frontispiece._ + ORCHARD HOUSE, THE ALCOTT HOMESTEAD.] + + + + + LITTLE WOMEN + LETTERS + FROM THE + HOUSE OF ALCOTT + + + SELECTED BY + JESSIE BONSTELLE + AND + MARIAN DEFOREST + + + [Illustration] + + + BOSTON + LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY + 1914 + + + + + _Copyright, 1914_, + BY JOHN S. P. ALCOTT. + + + _All rights reserved_ + + + Published, September, 1914 + + + Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + Presswork by S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A. + + + + + FOREWORD + +NEXT to the joy of giving to the Alcott-loving public "Little Women" as +a play, is the privilege and pleasure of offering this book of letters, +revealing the childhood and home life of the beloved Little Women. + +May they bring help and happiness to many mothers and inspiration and +love to many children. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. THE "REALLY, TRULY" TRUE 1 + + II. THE ALCOTT BOY; THE ALCOTT MAN 10 + + III. THE ALCOTT CHILDREN 28 + + IV. THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK 39 + + V. LETTERS AND CONVERSATIONS WITH CHILDREN 59 + + VI. THE MOTHER'S INFLUENCE 98 + + VII. CHILDREN'S DIARIES 122 + + VIII. GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD 140 + + IX. FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 162 + + CHRONOLOGY 195 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Orchard House, the Alcott Homestead _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + + A. Bronson Alcott at the age of 53, from + the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth 54 + + Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to + Louisa, Nov. 29, 1839 82 + + Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to Louisa, June 21, 1840 86 + + Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to Elizabeth, 1840 92 + + Abigail May, Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, from a + Daguerreotype 106 + + Anna Bronson Alcott, from a Daguerreotype 122 + + Abba May Alcott, from a Photograph 142 + + Louisa May Alcott, from a Daguerreotype 160 + + + + + LITTLE WOMEN + LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE + OF ALCOTT + + + CHAPTER I + + THE "REALLY, TRULY" TRUE + + +WHEN "Little Women," the play, reopened to many readers the pages of +"Little Women," the book, that delightful chronicle of family life, +dramatist and producer learned from many unconscious sources the depth +of Louisa M. Alcott's human appeal. Standing one night at the back of +the theater as the audience was dispersing, they listened to its +comments on the play. + +"A wonderful picture of home life, only we don't have such homes," said +a big, prosperous-looking man to his wife, with a touch of regret in his +voice. + +"Yes," agreed his young daughter, a tall, slender, graceful girl, as she +snuggled down cosily into her fur coat and tucked a bunch of violets +away from the touch of the frosty night, "it is beautiful; but, daddy, +it isn't real. There never was such a family." + +But it is real; there was such a family, and in letters, journals, and +illustration this little book gives the history of the four Little +Women, the Alcott girls, whom Louisa immortalized in her greatest story: +Anna, who is Meg in "Little Women"; Louisa, the irrepressible and +ambitious Jo; Elizabeth, the little Beth of the book; and Abba May, the +graceful and statuesque Amy. + +Rare influences were at work in this ideal American home, where the +intellectual and brilliant father was gifted in all ways except those +that led to material success, and the wise and gentle mother combined +with her loyalty and devotion to her husband a stanch, practical common +sense, which more than once served to guide the frail Alcott bark +through troubled seas. + +Following her remarkable success as a writer of short stories, Louisa M. +Alcott was asked for a book. She said at first it was impossible, but +repeated requests from her publishers brought from her the announcement +that the only long story she could write would be about her own family. +"Little Women" resulted, and, in erecting this House of Delight for +young and old, Louisa Alcott builded better than she knew. Her Jo has +been the inspiration of countless girls, and the many-sidedness of her +character is indicated by the widely diverging lines of endeavor which +Jo's example has suggested to the girl readers of the story. + +In the case of the two editors, both from early childhood found their +inspiration in Jo. One, patterning after her idol, sought success in a +stage career, beginning to "act" before a mirror, with a kitchen apron +for a train and a buttonhook for a dagger. The other, always with a +pencil in hand, first copied Jo by writing "lurid tales" for the weekly +sensation papers, and later emerged into Newspaper Row. + +It was more than a year after the success of "Little Women" as a play +had become a part of theatrical history that they visited the scenes +hallowed by the memories of the Little Women. They wished to see Concord +together, so they made a Sentimental Journey to the House of Alcott. + +The sun was shining, and the air was crisp--just such a day as Miss +Alcott described in the Plumfield harvest home, the last chapter in +"Little Women." They spent hours in Orchard House, touching reverently +the small personal effects of Louisa M. Alcott, seeing the shelf +between the windows in that little upper room, where she wrote and +dreamed. They even climbed to the garret and wondered which window was +her favorite scribbling seat, with a tin kitchen for her manuscripts, a +pile of apples for her refreshment, and Scrabble, the bewhiskered rat, +for her playfellow. + +Through the woods back of Orchard House they followed the winding +pathway to the Hall of Philosophy, half hidden among the trees, where +Bronson Alcott had his Conversations, where Emerson and Thoreau were +often heard, and the most intellectual debates of the century took +place. + +At sunset they visited Sleepy Hollow, the resting place of the Alcotts, +with Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne close by--a goodly company, +neighbors still as they were for so many years when they made Concord +America's literary shrine. + +Evening came, and the two pilgrims read together the Alcott journals and +letters. The ink was faded, the quaint, old-fashioned writing was hard +to decipher, but, beginning with a letter to Louisa written by Bronson +Alcott when his daughter was seven years old, they read on until the +dawn. + +Only one result could be expected from such an experience. They asked +permission to publish the letters and such portions of the journals as +would most completely reveal the rare spiritual companionship existing +between the Alcott parents and children. And, asking, they were refused, +because of a feeling that the letters and journals were intimate family +records, to be read, not by the many, but by the few. This same +sentiment withheld the dramatization of "Little Women" for many years. + +"You forget," they argued, holding fast to the dimly written pages, +"that Bronson Alcott and Louisa Alcott are a part of America's literary +heritage. They belong to the nation, to the world, not alone to you." + +This course of reasoning finally prevailed, but not without many months +of waiting. And thus, with the consent of the Alcott heirs, the book of +"Little Women Letters from the House of Alcott" came to be. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + I + + THE ALCOTT BOY + + +ONCE upon a time in the little town of Wolcott, Connecticut, was born a +boy destined to offer to the world new and beautiful thoughts. He was +laughed at and misunderstood; but the thoughts were truth, and they have +lived, although the boy grew weary and old and passed on. + +The boy was Amos Bronson Alcott. He was a country lad, used from infancy +to the rugged life of the farm, with its self-denial and makeshifts. The +seeming disadvantage, however, proved quite the opposite. His close +communion with Nature brought him nearer to the truths of life. For him +God ceased to be a mythical object to be studied and read about on +Sunday; but, as he roamed the fields and climbed the hills, the lad +found Him in the rocks and the woodlands, and in the sparkling streams. +He became a reality. The boy and God were friends. + +Of schooling he had little. When work at the farm permitted, he attended +the country school near his father's house. "Our copies," he told his +little daughters, "were set by the schoolmaster in books made of a few +sheets of foolscap, stitched together and ruled with a leather plummet. +We used ink made of maple and oak bark, which we manufactured ourselves. +With this I began keeping a diary of my doings." + +This was when the boy was twelve. His hours at school were few, but as +he went about his daily tasks on the farm, his thoughts grew and grew +until his mental stature far exceeded his physical. He read as he guided +the plow along the furrow, sometimes unmindful of his work until a +sudden punch from a neglected handle, as the plow struck a stone, would +bring him back to earth with a thump. He sowed seeds in the moist, sweet +earth, but his face was turned to the skies, and he knew the clouds and +the stars. When he gathered firewood, his eyes were keen for the soft, +dainty mosses, the clinging lichens. As he picked berries for the home +table, he never missed the whirr of a bird wing or passed unnoticed the +modest flowers half hidden in the soil. Nature was his library, and she +spread out her choicest treasures to this growing boy. + +A love for all of God's creations characterized him. He was fond, not +only of the growing things in the wood, but of all life. His love for +animals amounted almost to a passion, one reason for his being a strict +vegetarian and insisting upon bringing up his little family on a +vegetable diet. But in boyhood it was not always clear whether humanity +or the craving for knowledge made him so considerate of the plodding +team in the field. Never was team more carefully tended. Many were its +hours of grazing, when the noonday sun rode high in the heavens, and the +Alcott boy, book in hand, curled up under the shade of a gigantic elm +and read until the shadows began to lengthen. But these lapses were only +occasional, for the lad was faithful to his tasks, except when he +yielded to the lure of the printed page. + +When scarcely more than a child he began to keep a record of his books +and his reading, showing the first traces of the reflective, +introspective quality of mind which later led him to set down in letters +and unpublished manuscripts his inmost thoughts. He cultivated the same +habits of thought in his children, one reason, doubtless, for Louisa's +accurate and realistic descriptions of the lives of the four Little +Women of the Alcott family. + +His favorite books in boyhood, and, for that matter, in manhood, were +the Bible and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," which he read and reread +and commented upon. Years later he mentions in his journal that he made +it a practice to read "Pilgrim's Progress" every year, which is a +remarkable record to the modern boy and girl who find it difficult to +struggle through that wonderful allegory even once. + +Bronson Alcott took his chance and made a stepping-stone of every +difficulty. Each obstacle he encountered in getting an education created +in him an even stronger determination to gain one. The modern boy has +the world of books opened wide to him through the library and the free +school. The treasures of art are spread out before him in the museums. +He is surrounded by helps. The boy of to-day is studied as an entity. +The boy of the last century could tell quite a different story. + +So the Alcott boy, passing long hours in the woods, reading, thinking, +getting close to Nature and to God, walked as one apart, seeing the +invisible. While still a boy, he began casting off the garment of a +conventional creed and to think for himself of God, the creation, of +life, unconsciously putting from him the trammeling, cumbersome +conventions with which man has often hidden truth. + +Out of this the man Alcott emerged--a great soul. + + + II + + THE ALCOTT MAN + + +With Bronson Alcott the craving for knowledge was scarcely stronger than +the craving for adventure, so it is not surprising that in the first +flush of young manhood he did not settle down to life on the farm. He +longed for the great world lying beyond the hills and valleys of +peaceful New England. He wanted experience, and experience he had. + +He went South, hoping to teach school, as he had original ideas on the +training of children. Unsuccessful in this, he decided to be a peddler, +naively remarking that "honesty of purpose could dignify any +profession." + +Think of the courage of this boy, for he was scarcely more than a boy, a +philosopher at heart, living in a world of dreams and books, his +ambitions all for intellectual rather than material achievement, +tramping the southern countryside, undauntedly peddling buttons, +elastic, pins and needles, and supplying all the small wants of the +country housewife! Often he encountered rebuffs, sometimes he had a +hearty welcome, for the visit of the country peddler was eagerly awaited +by the children. At times, when night came and he was far from the +shelter of an inn, he had to beg a lodging from some planter. On one +such occasion, as he entered the grounds, he saw a huge sign, "Beware +the dog." A shout from the house also warned him, and he saw dashing +toward him a savage-looking dog, powerful enough to have torn to pieces +the slender young peddler-student. But his love for animals triumphed. +Alcott stretched out his hand. The huge creature stopped short; then, +recognizing a friend and a fearless one, he bounded on, tail wagging, +barking joyously, snuggling his nose into the young man's palm, which he +licked as he escorted his new-found friend to the house. Animals always +recognized in Alcott an understanding comrade. + +From most of these trips Alcott brought back money to add to the scanty +funds at home, but on one memorable occasion the love of finery proved +stronger than the necessity for saving, and he returned to the farm +penniless, but dressed in the latest fashion, having used his savings +for a wardrobe that was the wonder of the countryside. That one debauch +of clothes satisfied him for life; after that his tastes were markedly +simple. With him the "dandy period" was short-lived indeed. That he +repented bitterly of this one excess of folly is shown in his journals, +where he sets down minutely what to him was a mistake that amounted +almost to a sin. As a rule, he was singularly free from folly. His +thoughts were too high, his ideals too lofty, for him to be long +concerned with trifles such as clothes, and the next expenditure +mentioned in his journal is for the "Vicar of Wakefield" and Johnson's +"Rasselas." Ever impractical, one likes him the better for the little +human moment when the vanities of the world overcame him. + +At last he secured a school, and then began the realization of his +ideals regarding the teaching of children. His methods were original and +highly successful, especially with the very young. He established a +mental kindergarten, and the fame of his teaching spread abroad. Through +his work as a teacher he achieved his greatest happiness, for it led to +his meeting with the woman who was destined to become his wife. + +As the result of correspondence between himself and Mr. May of +Brooklyn, Connecticut, whose attention had been attracted to the work +of the young teacher, Alcott, then twenty-eight years old, drove from +the Wolcott home to Brooklyn, where he met Abigail May of Boston, who +was visiting her brother. With both it was love at first sight, a love +that grew into a perfect spiritual union. + +It seemed almost providential that Bronson Alcott should have come into +Abigail May's life at just this time, when her heart had been touched by +its first great sorrow--the loss of her mother. Hitherto she had been a +light-hearted girl, fond of dancing and of the material side of life. +The young philosopher, with his dreams and his ideals, brought a new +interest into her now lonely life, and all that was spiritual in her +nature responded as he freely discussed his plans and ambitions with +her. In her he found both sympathy and understanding. + +A year of letter-writing, a frank and honest exchange of thought, +brought out the harmony of their natures and developed in both a sense +of oneness, laying a firm foundation for the comradeship which was not +broken through all the years, even when the wife and mother passed into +the Great Beyond. + +The Alcott-May courtship was ideal. Retaining the heaven that lay about +him in his infancy, keeping his close companionship with God and God's +great laboratory, Nature, Bronson Alcott demanded something more than +mere physical attraction in choosing his wife. A certain quaint +circumspection characterized their love-making. Abigail May once wrote: +"Mr. Alcott's views on education were very attractive, and I was charmed +by his modesty," and long after their engagement she spoke of her lover +as "her friend." He was, and so he continued to be in the highest sense +of the word. + +So satisfying were those friendship-courtship days, that apparently both +were loath to end them, for another twelvemonth passed before the +announcement of their betrothal, and it was nearly three years from the +date of their first meeting before their marriage in King's Chapel, +Boston, where the brother who had been the means of bringing them +together performed the ceremony. + +As their marriage day approached, there was little festivity and none of +the rush that usually precedes a modern wedding. Everything was simple, +quiet, and sure. + +This is Bronson Alcott's letter, asking a friend to act as best man at +his wedding. + + Dear Sir: + + Permit me to ask the favor of your calling at Col. May's at 4 + o'clock precisely on Sunday afternoon next, to accompany me and + my friend Miss May to King's Chapel. + + With esteem, + A. B. Alcott + + Thursday, May 20, + 112 Franklin St. 1830. + +So began the Alcott pilgrimage, their fortune consisting of love and +faith and brains. In these they were rich indeed, and thus closed +another chapter in the life of the gentle philosopher, of whom Ralph +Waldo Emerson once said: "Our Alcott has only just missed being a +seraph." + + + + + CHAPTER III + + THE ALCOTT CHILDREN + + +FOR some months after their marriage the Alcotts lived in Boston, where +the young enthusiast taught a school for infants. Again his fame as a +teacher traveled, and he received an offer from the Quakers of +Philadelphia to start a school there, an offer so tempting that the +Alcotts moved to Germantown, Pennsylvania, where Anna and Louisa were +born. + +Eugenics and prenatal influence were not discussed then as they are +to-day, but in the Alcott family nearly a century ago they were being +thought and lived. Bronson Alcott and his wife considered children an +expression, not of themselves, but of divinity, and as such to be +accepted as a trust, rather than as a gratification of their own human +longing for fatherhood and motherhood. They felt it their parental +privilege rather than their duty to aid the human development of the +child and thus further the fulfillment of its destiny. Each little soul +was humbly asked for and reverently prepared for. From the moment they +knew their prayer had been granted, the individuality and rights of that +soul were respected. It was considered as a little guest that must be +made happy and comfortable, carefully cherished, mentally and +physically, while its fleshly garment was being prepared and the little +personality made ready for its earthly appearance. How careful they were +of every thought and influence, for to both parents this period was the +most sacred and wonderful in their lives and in the lives of their +children. + +The depth of his joy and the simplicity of his faith are exquisitely +expressed in the lines which Bronson Alcott wrote before the birth of +his first child, Anna: + + TO AN EXPECTANT MOTHER + + The long advancing hour draws nigh--the hour + When life's young pulse begins its mystic play, + And deep affection's dreams of Form or Joy + Shall be unveiled, a bodily presence + To thy yearning heart and fond maternal eye, + The primal Soul, a semblance of thine own, + Its high abode shall leave and dwell in day, + Thyself its forming Parent. A miracle, indeed, + Shall nature work. Thou shalt become + The bearing mother of an Infant Soul-- + Its guardian spirit to its home above. + But yet erewhile the lagging moments come + That layeth the living, conscious, burden down, + Firm faith may rest in hope. Accordant toils + Shall leave no time for fear, nor doubt, nor gloom. + Love, peace, and virtue, are all born of Pain, + And He who rules o'er these is ever good. + The joyous promise is to her who trusts, + Who trusting, gains the vital boon she asks, + And meekly asking, learns to trust aright. + +Louisa, the second child, born on her father's birthday, was the most +intellectual and the most resourceful of the Alcott children, reflecting +in her own buoyant personality the happy conditions existing before and +at the time of her birth, when her father had attained his greatest +material prosperity and was also realizing his mental ambitions in his +little school, and her mother was temporarily relieved from the cares +that so often weighed heavily upon her. + +Shortly before the birth of Elizabeth the father makes this entry in his +journal: + + THE ADVENT COMETH + + Daily am I in expectation of beholding with the eye of sense, + the spirit that now lingers on the threshold of this terrestrial + life, and only awaits the bidding of the Reaper within, to usher + itself into the presence of mortals. It standeth at the door and + waiteth for admission to the exterior scene of things.... Let + the time come. Two little ones in advance await its coming; and + greetings of joy shall herald its approach. + +The birth of Elizabeth is followed by this entry in his journal: + + At sunset this day a daughter was born to us. + +One of the most trying of the Alcott family's experiences came after the +birth of Elizabeth, when Bronson Alcott, again in Boston, aroused a +storm of protest with his radical teachings and his advanced +interpretations of the Bible. Shocked that the city where he expected to +find sympathy and encouragement should have repudiated him, his school +disrupted and abject poverty his lot, broken mentally and physically, he +met with another cruel disappointment in the death of his infant son. +Yet even then there was no word of bitterness, and no mention is made in +his journal of the father's grief. Indirectly it is expressed in a +subsequent entry announcing the birth of the fourth daughter, Abba May. + +She was born under sunny skies. The storm had passed, and the Alcott +family had removed to Concord, where they enjoyed many of their happiest +years. A presage of May Alcott's artistic gifts, her queenly bearing, +elegance, and charm, all familiar to readers of "Little Women," is found +in this entry in the father's journal: + + July, 1840. + + A new life has arrived to us (July 26th). She was born with the + dawn, and is a proud little Queen, not deigning to give us the + light of her royal presence, but persists in sleeping all the + time, without notice of the broad world or ourselves. + Providence, it seems, decrees that we shall provide selectest + ministries alone, and so sends us successive daughters of Love + to quicken the Sons of Life. We joyfully acquiesce in the Divine + behest and are content to rear women for the future world. As + yet the ministry is unknown in the culture of the nations, but + the hour draws near when love shall be felt as a chosen Bride of + Wisdom, and the celestial pair preside over all the household of + mankind. + +Bronson Alcott did not feel his responsibility as a father alone; he +appreciated his own debt to his children, the mental and spiritual help +that came to him through them, an appreciation that found expression in +this poem, entered in his journal before the birth of Elizabeth: + + June, 1835 + + INVOCATION TO A CHILD + + She comes from Heaven, she dawns upon my sight, + O'er earth's dark scenes to pour her holy light! + In sense and blest the Infinite to see + And feel the heavenly mystery--_To Be._ + + She comes--in Nature's tenderest, fondest name-- + Daughter of God--'tis she--the same--the same + Mine is she too--my own--my latest child, + Myself, wrapt in Divinity, yet unbeguiled! + + Blest Infant! God's and mine! yet to me given, + That I might feel anew my Being's Heaven-- + In love and faith to urge my human way, + Till conscious time be lost in Immortality! + + Love thee I will; for thou didst first love me-- + My faith shall quicken as I dwell on thee, + Thy Spirit lift me from this "Grave of Things," + And bear me homeward, to the King of Kings. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK + + +BRONSON ALCOTT wrote the first Baby Book, a book which throws new light +on the character of the lovable philosopher, showing one of New +England's intellectual leaders as a very human and lovable man as well +as "a fond and foolish father." + +His Baby Book, however, contains no minute record of the first tooth, or +when the baby began to say "Goo" and "Pitty light"; rather it is the +father's earnest effort to learn how early in life the infant mind +begins to awaken, to indicate comprehension, thought, or logic. As +Maeterlinck studied the bee, so Alcott studied his children, and his +findings are a revelation, even to-day, when the study of the child has +become a science. + +Mr. Alcott considered vital the development of the child's individuality +and mind; the body seemed to him of secondary importance, for this +disregard of the material care of his family he has been severely +censured; but, not recognizing in his own life the claims of the body, +devoting all his energies to mental growth, it is not surprising that he +found his fatherly duty in the guidance of his children's minds. His +firm faith in the admonition, "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and +all these things shall be added unto you," was to him excuse enough for +considering the intellect more than the body. + +His practical shortcomings reaped a rich and unexpected reward in the +next generation, for Louisa M. Alcott would probably not have developed +her original and highly entertaining literary gift without the +vicissitudes caused by her father's impractical nature and his sublime +faith that at all times and in all emergencies the Lord would provide. +He did provide; but Louisa was usually the channel, and many of her +stories were written under the whip of stern necessity. + +Doing without has its advantages. The Alcott children, never overfed, +overentertained, overburdened to baby boredom with dolls and toys and +games, developed appreciation, observation, and ingenuity. The creative +faculty was aroused. They found resources within themselves. What a +handbook Louisa might have written on How to be Happy though Poor! + +Mrs. Alcott's keen sense of humor, a characteristic inherited by Louisa, +often came to her rescue and allowed her to get fun out of a harassing +situation. In a letter to her brother, Colonel May, praising her +husband's intellect, she laughingly comments upon his disregard of +physical necessities: "I am not sure that we shall not blush into +obscurity and contemplate into starvation." + +But, to get back to the baby book, or, as Mr. Alcott called it, "the +psychological history," it was started with a high and unselfish motive; +it was developed to an astonishing degree. Its purpose and scope are +best expressed in this extract from Mr. Alcott's journal: + + The history of a human mind during its progressive stages of + earthly experience has never as yet, I believe, been attempted. + Faithfully compiled, from verified data, it would be a treasure + of wisdom to all mankind, replete with light to the + metaphysical and ethical inquirer. Comparative philosophy + deduced from an observation of man during all circumstances and + stages of his existence is a thing yet unthought of among us. + From such a work the unity of Humanity might be revealed. + +When Anna was born, the father began keeping a record of her "physical +and intellectual progress." When she was seven weeks old, her mother +wrote: "It seems as if she were conscious of his observations and +desirous of furnishing him daily with an item for this record." + +The following excerpt from the father's diary shows how well Anna +succeeded in her baby attempt: + + I am much interested in the progress of my little girl, now + five months old, which I have recorded from the day of her + birth. This record has swollen to a hundred pages. I have + attempted to discover, as far as this could be done by external + indication, the successive steps of her physical, mental and + moral advancement. + +Moral advancement of a baby five months old! + + + BIRTH OF LOUISA + +On November 29, 1832, his thirty-third birthday and also the natal day +of his friend, Ellery Channing, the poet, Mr. Alcott chronicles an +"interesting event," how interesting the father little dreamed, nor how +important, not alone to the house of Alcott, but to the world. Under the +heading of Circumstances, the father thus records the birth of Louisa +May Alcott: + + A daughter born, on the 29th. ulto., my birthday, being 33 + years of age. This is a most interesting event. Unless those + ties which connect it with others are formed, the wants of the + soul become morbid and all its fresh and primal affections + become dim and perverted.... Few can be happy shut out of the + nursery of the soul. + +While the New England philosopher was studying the development of his +little daughters and deducing therefrom facts for his psychological +history, these same little daughters were developing him, for, as the +child nature unfolded, the father's understanding of childhood expanded. + +Thus the baby book grew: + + The influence of children I regard as important to my own + improvement and happiness. It is also necessary to the + prosecution of my studies. Dwelling in the primal regions which + I wish to explore, they are the purest manifestations of its + phenomena, and the only subjects from which humanity is to be + interpreted in its purity. + +When Anna was three years old and Louisa eighteen months, the father +writes in his journal: + + I passed some time with the children, fitting up their + playthings, conversing with them and learning as far as I could + through the subtle meaning of looks, accents and gestures, + their thoughts and feelings. The avenues to the spirit are all + open, but how dim are our perceptions, how cold our sympathies, + to appreciate the pure and bright things which glitter in the + arena of the young mind! How little of this fairy land do we + know--we, whose early associations have all been swept from the + heart--over whose spirits have passed the cold winds, the + pelting storms, withering and destroying the heart's young + verdure! What is there to unite us with the spirit of a child? + What have we in common with its joyous yearning for the + beautiful, its trust in human sayings, its deep love for those + on whom it relies for attention and support, its vivid + picturing of ideal life, its simplicity, its freedom from + prejudice and false sentiment? Where are these to be seen in + our dim nature? + +He might have answered the question by looking within himself. Child +companionship kept alive the spirit of the Alcott boy, which constantly +shone through the man's philosophy. As the boy saw in every rock and +tree and flower an expression of the Infinite, is it any wonder that the +man should have recognized God's higher manifestation in the child, and +should have written in his journal these lines, which are the very +glorification of fatherhood and reveal the sacredness with which he +looked upon his stewardship? + + He who deals with the child deals--did he know it--with the + Infinite. Within the young spirit committed to his care are + infinite capacities to be filled, infinite energies to be + developed, and on him devolves the amazing responsibility--sacred, + personal, all his own--of filling these capacities, unfolding + these energies, from the stores and life of his own spirit. This + is his office as a parent. But how can he who knows nothing of the + Infinite within himself call it forth and direct its forces in + others? + +From the first, Louisa must have shown strong individuality and unusual +tendencies, for Mr. Alcott's notes on Louisa are entitled "Observations +on the Vital Phenomena of My Second Child." A more vital, lovable, +contradictory specimen of childhood cannot be imagined. Blessed with her +father's brilliancy of mind, her mother's quick wit and love of fun, +Louisa furnished a problem for endless study. She was less than two +years old when her individuality had so asserted itself that her father +found himself puzzled and admitted that elements were finding their +way into his observations of whose origin he could give no account. "My +analysis, however accurate and elaborate, was still imperfect, and I was +left in doubt. I had made no provision for the admission of innate +influences from the mind itself." + +Here is a quaint little record of the Alcott babies' school days, when +Anna was four years old and Louisa a little more than two: + + At school Anna reads, marks and listens to conversations and + stories. Louisa works with her in all except the reading and + marking. They have a playroom, where they enjoy their own + amusements, uninterrupted by the presence of adults--often a + bar to the genuine happiness of childhood. Anna reads simple + sentences from Leffanoch's Primer, writes intelligibly on + tablets and slates, and is improving in work and manners. + +(This of a baby of four.) + +A spiritual and moral inventory of the progress of Anna and Louisa is +set down by the father when his daughters had reached the dignified ages +of six and four: + + The children have improved under my training. Anna, who has + been with me more of the time than Louisa, has been greatly + benefited. She is happier, more capable of self control, more + docile and obeys from love and faith. She has fine elements for + excellence, moral and intellectual. If she does not evince a + pure and exalted character, it will be our failure, not hers, + in the improvement of her natural endowments. + + Louisa is yet too young for the formation of just views of her + character. She manifests uncommon activity and force of mind + at present, and is much in advance of her sister at the same + age; example has done much to call forth her nature. She is + more active and practical than Anna. Anna is ideal, sentimental. + Louisa is practical, energetic. The first imagines much more than + she can realize; the second, by force of will and practical talent, + realizes all that she conceives--but conceives less; understanding, + rather than imagination--the gift of her sister--seems to be her + prominent faculty. She finds no difficulty in developing ways and + means to obtain her purpose; while her sister, aiming at much, + imagining ideal forms of good, and shaping them out so vividly in + her mind that they become actual enjoyments, fails, when she + attempts to realize them in nature--she has been dwelling on the + higher and more speculative relations of things. + + Both represent interesting forms of character, both have wide + and useful spheres of action indicated in their conformation and + will doubtless if continued to us, be real blessings. + +That they did prove real blessings the history of the Alcott family has +shown. + + [Illustration: A. BRONSON ALCOTT AT THE AGE OF 53. + From the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth. + _Page_ 54.] + +How many fathers ever acknowledge their spiritual debt to the gift of +fatherhood as has Bronson Alcott: + + I know not how much more spiritual I am from the parental relation + (he writes), how much I have been indebted to them for the light + that hath dawned upon my own mind from the radiance of their + simple spirits. Certain it is that the more I associate with them + in the simple ways they love, the more do I seem to revere. Verily + had I not been called to associate with children, had I not devoted + myself to the study of human nature in its period of infancy and + childhood, I should never have found the tranquil repose, the steady + faith, the vivid hope that now sheds a glory and a dignity around + the humble path of my life. Childhood hath saved me. + +Out of his theories, his studies, and meditations came a sublime +ambition, a desire to become a laborer in the "Field of the Soul." + + Infancy I shall invest with a glory--a spirituality which the + disciples of Jesus, deeply as they entered into His spirit + and caught the life of His mind, have failed to bring forth in + their records of His sayings and life. I shall redeem infancy + and childhood, and, if a Saviour of Adults was given in the + person of Jesus, let me, without impiety or arrogance, regard + myself as the Children's Saviour. Divine are both missions. + Both seek out and endeavor to redeem the Infinite in man, + which, by reason of the clogs of sense and custom, is in + perpetual danger of being lost. The chief obstacle in the way + of human regeneration is the want of a due appreciation of + human nature, and particularly of the nature of children. + +Home and its influence upon children meant much to Mr. Alcott, and in +all his writing the nearest approach to a protest against the poverty +he was called upon to endure was when, for a time, he was obliged to +give up that home. Deep is the pathos that lies between the lines of +this entry in his journal: + + HOME FOR CHILDREN + + I deem it very important to the well being of my children to + insure them a home. At least their means of improvement are + limited, their pleasures are abridged, the domestic relations, so + vital to virtue--to all that lives in the heart and imagination, + are robbed of their essential glory, and the effect is felt + throughout the character in after life. I feel that my duty as a + father cannot be fully carried out when I am thus restricted. + Whether we can yet improve this condition remains to be + determined. + +The home was reestablished--and such a home! An influence felt +throughout the world, the inspiration of every book Louisa Alcott +wrote. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + LETTERS AND CONVERSATIONS WITH CHILDREN + + +HAPPINESS reigned in the Alcott home, and poverty seldom brought with it +a shadow. The girls had toys and a variety of them,--rag dolls, kittens, +gingerbread men, and barnyard animals (the latter skillfully cut out of +cake dough by the mother, who had a genius for inventing surprises). As +they grew older, they delighted in private theatricals. Some of their +plays, written by Anna and Louisa, have been published under the title +of "Comic Tragedies." They are thrillingly melodramatic, thickly +sprinkled with villains and heroes, witches and ruffians, lovely ladies +in distress, gallant knights to the rescue, evil spirits and good +fairies, gnomes and giants. All are direfully tragic and splendidly +spectacular. Louisa as a child showed the dramatic quality which later +found artistic expression in her stories. On a rainy afternoon the +children were never at a loss for entertainment. They "acted" in the +attic or played dolls in their own playroom, and such dolls! Old Joanna, +of whom Louisa has drawn a lifelike picture in "Little Women," is to-day +in existence, battered, scarred, but none the less precious, one foot +carefully bandaged, after the army-nurse method. + +Poverty was made interesting. At Christmas a tree was hung with apples, +nuts, and popped corn, and small trifles made by the children were +fastened to the branches. Father and mother made much of the spirit of +the Christ birthday, which was celebrated in simple, wholesome fashion, +in vivid contrast to the modern Christmas festival. + +The Alcott letters and journals show tremendous intellectual activity on +the part of the small atoms of humanity who came to grace the Alcott +home. Anna and her father held moral and intellectual discussions when +Anna was four. Louisa was writing a daily journal before she could more +than print. As soon as a child could read, family reproofs were +administered by notes from father and mother to the erring one, not only +pointing out the fault, but how to correct it. + +The father encouraged his daughters to study themselves and to write +down their thoughts. Their journals, in consequence, reflect the +characteristics of each one and are storehouses of information. Louisa, +poor little soul, in her happy, hoydenish childhood, found time one day +in a fit of mentality to set down in black and white her chief faults. +One of her most serious, according to the self-imposed confession, was +"love of cats," a sin which easily beset her all her days, for she +inherited her father's love of animals and of children. + +Widely varied in character and temperament were the four Alcott girls. +Anna, the first, reflected the beauty, the happiness, and the romance of +the Alcotts' first year of married life. Louisa, born some eighteen +months later, when father and mother had grown even closer together +through the new bond formed by the love of their little daughter, +embodied a deeper, stronger, surer character. She was decisive, with a +determination and surety of self and brilliancy of mind that reflected +the best in both parents. Elizabeth, the third child, was, in some +respects, the most beautiful character of all. About her, from the hour +of her conception, seemed to hover a spiritual, protecting love. +Seemingly from earliest infancy she stood on the borderland of the +spiritual world, in flesh all too fragile to retain the spirit which +remembered and longed, notwithstanding the love with which she was +surrounded, to return to the mystical beauty from which she had come. A +child of dreams and fancies, loving all that was harmonious, she entered +this life at twilight, she left it at the dawn, a coming and going +typical of this dream child, who was lent for a little time to make the +world more glad. + +The birth of Amy is also symbolical, the one sunny-haired, sunny-hearted +girl of the family, who came with the rising of the sun. She seemed made +for love, sunshine, and happiness, and had them all, but she was brave +to face hardships and equally ready to accept comfort and luxury. A +queen, the father called her the morning of her birth, and so they +brought her up, the Little Snow Queen. + +The wise, fostering love of the father, the helpful, understanding +watchfulness of the mother, are reflected in their letters to their +children. Time was not considered wasted that was devoted to these +letters of gentle admonition and kindly counsel. There was no discussion +of faults or mistakes in the Alcott household; reproofs remained little +secrets between father and daughter, or mother and daughter, and the +effect of this wise and constant watchfulness grows more apparent as the +children advance from childhood to girlhood and on to womanhood. They +were taught to know themselves. They were taught, too, the relation of +the Christ child with their own childhood, beautifully expressed in some +of the letters from Bronson Alcott to his eldest daughter. + +It was the father's habit to write each child on her birthday +anniversary and at Christmas. Anna was six years old when he gave her +this beautiful description of the coming of the Christ: + + For Anna + 1837 + + To my Daughter Anna. + + A longer time ago than you can understand, a beautiful Babe was + born. Angels sang at his birth. And stars shone brightly. + Shepherds watched their flocks by their light. The Babe was + laid in his Manger-cradle. And harmless oxen fed by his side. + There was no room for him nor his mother in the Inn, as she + journeyed from her own home. + + This Babe was born at this time of the year. His name was Jesus. + And he is also called Christ. This is his birth night. And we + call it Christ-mas, after him. + + I write you this little note as a Christmas Gift, and hope my + little girl will remember the birth night of Jesus. Think how + beautiful he was, and try to shine in lovely actions as he did. + God never had a child that pleased him so well. Be like a kind + sister of his, and so please your Father, who loves you very + much. + + Christmas Eve, + December 24th, 1837. + From your + Father. + +Again on Christmas Eve, two years later, he describes to his little +daughter of eight years her own coming into the world of material +things. + +The belief in prenatal influence is strongly indicated, for the father +tells his little girl that they thought just how she would look and +pictures to her the joy and the love with which she was surrounded +before her coming into the land of the material and first seeing with +her baby eyes the light of a world day. + + For Anna + 1839 + + You were once pleased, my daughter, with a little note which I + wrote you on Christmas Eve, concerning the birth of Jesus. I + am now going to write a few words about your own Birth. Mother + and I had no child. We wanted one--a little girl just like you; + and we thought how you would look, and waited a good while for + you to come, so that we might see you and have you for our own. + At last you came. We felt so happy that joy stood in our eyes. + You looked just as we wanted to have you. You were draped in a + pretty little white frock, and father took you in his arms every + day, and we loved you very much. Your large bright eyes looked + lovingly into ours, and you soon learned to love and know us. + When you were a few weeks old, you smiled on us. We lived then + in Germantown. It is now more than eight years since this + happened, but I sometimes see the same look and the same smile + on your face, and feel that my daughter is yet good and pure. O + keep it there, my daughter, and never lose it. + + Your Father, + Christmas Eve, + Beach Street, + Dec. 24, 1839. + +On her birthday some three months later, he continues the thought in +this exquisite letter: + + March 16, 1840. + + My dear Daughter, + + With this morning's dawn opens a new year of your Life on Earth. + Nine years ago you were sent, a sweet Babe into this world, a + joy and hope to your father and mother. After a while, through + many smiles and some few tears, you learned to lisp the names + of father and mother, and to make them feel once more how near + and dear you were to their hearts whenever you named their + names. Now you are a still dearer object of Love and hope to + them as your love buds and blossoms under their eye. They watch + this flower as it grows in the Garden of Life, and scents the + air with its fragrance, and delights the eye by its colours. + Soon they will look not for Beauty and fragrance alone, but for + the ripening and ripe fruit. May it be the Spirit of Goodness; + may its leaves never wither, its flowers never fade; its + fragrance never cease; but may it flourish in perpetual youth + and beauty, and be transplanted in its time, into the Garden of + God, whose plants are ever green, ever fresh, and bloom alway, + the amaranth of Heaven, the pride and joy of angels. Thus + writes your Father to you on this your birth morn. + + Monday, 16 March, 1840. + Beach Street, + Boston + + For + Anna, + in the Garden of Life. + +This letter and his allusion to "your life on earth" show plainly his +belief in life eternal, for Bronson Alcott considered earthly existence +merely a period in the evolution of the soul. + +On Christmas Eve, 1840; when Anna was nearly ten, Louisa just past her +eighth birthday, May, the golden-haired baby of the Alcott household, +and Elizabeth the little shadow child of four, he wrote Christmas +letters to his daughters, which show his appreciation of their special +needs, and his respect for their individualities. The letter to +Elizabeth is missing; to Anna he wrote: + + For Anna + 1840 + + BEAUTY or DUTY + which + loves Anna best? + + a + Question + from her + FATHER + + Christmas Eve + Dec. 1840 + Concordia. + +For Louisa, the father's message was this: + + For Louisa + 1840 + + Louisa loves-- + What? + (Softly) + FUN + Have some then, + Father + says. + + Christmas Eve, Dec. 1840 + Concordia. + +For the baby of the household, the father's love message took poetic +form: + + For Abba + 1840 + + For Abba + Babe fair, + Pretty hair, + Bright eye, + Deep sigh, + Sweet lip, + Feet slip, + Handsome hand, + Stout grand, + Happy smile, + Time beguile, + All I ween, + Concordia's Queen. + +Almost without the dates, one could keep track of the development of the +Alcott girls through their father's letters. This one demonstrates his +gift of teaching by the use of suggestion: + + For Anna + + 1842 + + _A Father's Gift_ + to his + _Daughter_ + on her + _Eleventh Birthday_. + + Concordia + 16th March + 1842 + + My dear daughter, + + This is your eleventh birthday, and as I have heretofore + addressed a few words to you on these interesting occasions, I + will not depart from my former custom now. + + And my daughter, what shall I say to you? Shall I say something + to please or to instruct you--to flatter or benefit you? I know + you dislike being pleased unless the pleasure make you better, + and you dislike all flattery. And you know too, that your father + never gave you a word of flattery in his life. So there remains + for you the true and purest pleasure of being instructed and + benefited by words of love and the deepest regard for your + improvement in all that shall make you more happy in yourself + and beautiful to others. And so I shall speak plainly to you of + yourself, and of my desire for your improvement in several + important things. + + _First--Your Manners._ Try to be more gentle. You like gentle + people and every one is more agreeable as he cultivates this + habit. None can be agreeable who are destitute of it and how + shall you become more gentle? Only by governing your passions, + and cherishing your love to everyone who is near you. Love is + gentle: Hate is violent. Love is well-mannered; Selfishness is + rude, vulgar. Love gives sweet tone to the voice, and makes the + countenance lovely. Love then, and grow fair and agreeable. + + _Second: Be Patient._ This is one of the most difficult things to + everyone, old or young. But it is also one of the greatest + things. And this comes of Love too. Love is Patient: it bears; + it suffers long; it is kind; it is beautiful; it makes us like + angels. Patience is, indeed, angelic; it is the Gate that opens + into the House of Happiness. Open it, my daughter, and enter in + and take all your sisters in with you. + + _Third: Be Resolute._ Shake off all Sluggishness, and follow your + Confidence as fast as your feelings, your thoughts, your eye, + your hand, your foot, will carry you. Hate all excuses: almost + always, these are lies. Be _quick_ in your obedience: delay is a + laggard, who never gets up with himself, and loses the company + of confidence always. Resolution is the ladder to Happiness. + Resolve and be a wise and happy girl. + + _Fourth: Be Diligent._ Put your heart into all you do: and fix + your thoughts on your doings. Halfness is almost as bad as + nothing: be whole then in all you do and say. + + But I am saying a great deal and will stop now with the hope of + meeting you on the 16th March, 1843 (the good God sparing us + till then) a gentler, a meeker, more determined and obligent + girl. + + Your friend + and + _Father_ + + Concordia + 16 March + _1842_ + + For + _Anna Bronson Alcott._ + +Such a gift to an eleven-year-old girl on her birthday! One would expect +not kindly counsel, but a toy, a picture book, something pretty for her +body, not much for her mind. The spirituality and the wisdom of the +poet-philosopher are shown in this letter with its "excuses, almost +always lies," and "delay is a laggard." + +When Louisa was seven years old, her mother was ill, and the child was +sent away from home for a time. To his little absent daughter the father +sends this letter, printed so that she might read it for herself: + + For Louisa. + 1839 + + My dear Little Girl. + + Father hopes you are well and happy. Mother will soon be well + enough we hope for you to come home. You want to see us all I + know. And we want to see you very much. Be a good girl and try + to do as they tell you. You shall see us all in a few days. + + You were never away from home so long before. It has given you + some new feelings. + + I have printed this note. I hope you can read it all yourself. + + Good Bye + From Father. + + Saturday + 11 o'clock in the School Room. + 1839 + +On her seventh birthday he writes her one of the most wonderful letters +of the many that have been preserved in the volumes of the Alcott +manuscripts: + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + For Louisa + 1839 + + My Daughter, + + You are Seven years old to-day and your Father is forty. You + have learned a great many things, since you have lived in a + Body, about things going on around you and within you. You know + how to think, how to resolve, how to love, and how to obey. You + feel your Conscience, and have no real pleasure unless you obey + it. You cannot love yourself, or anyone else, when you do not + mind its commandments. It asks you always to BE GOOD, and bears, + O how gently! how patiently! with all endeavors to hate, and + treat it cruelly. How kindly it bears with you all the while. + How sweetly it whispers Happiness in your HEART when you Obey + its soft words. How it smiles upon you, and makes you Glad when + you Resolve to Obey it! How terrible its PUNISHMENTS. It is GOD + trying in your soul to keep you always Good. + + You begin, my dear daughter, another year this morning. Your + Father, your Mother, and Sisters, with your little friends, show + their love on this your Birthday, by giving you this BOX. Open + it, and take what is in it, and the best wishes of + + Your Father. + + Beach Street, + Friday morning, Nov. 29, 1839. + +His explanation to a seven-year-old girl that conscience is "God in your +soul," and the lines, "since you have lived in a body," are eloquent +manifestations of his belief. It is not surprising that, given such +thoughts at seven, Louisa at ten or eleven wrote that she was sure in +some previous life she must have been a horse,--she loved so to run. A +month before May Alcott was born, little Louisa, then eight, again away +from home, received this letter from her father: + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + Cottage, Sunday June 21st, + 1840. + + We all miss the noisy little girl who used to make house and + garden, barn and field, ring with her footsteps, and even the + hens and chickens seem to miss her too. Right glad would father + and mother, Anna and Elizabeth, and all the little mates at + School, and Miss Russell, the House Playroom, Dolls, Hoop, + Garden, Flowers, Fields, Woods and Brooks, all be to see and + answer the voice and footsteps, the eye and hand of their + little companion. But yet all make themselves happy and + beautiful without her; all seem to say, "Be Good, little Miss, + while away from us, and when we meet again we shall love and + please one another all the more; we find how much we love now we + are separated." + + I wished you here very much on the morning when the Hen left her + nest and came proudly down with six little chickens, everyone + knowing how to walk, fly, eat and drink almost as well as its + own mother; to-day (Sunday) they all came to see the house and + took their breakfast from their nice little feeding trough; you + would have enjoyed the sight very much. But this and many other + pleasures all wait for you when you return. Be good, kind, + gentle, while you are away, step lightly, and speak soft about + the house; + + Grandpa loves quiet, as well as your sober father and other + grown people. + + Elizabeth says often, "Oh I wish I could see Louisa, when will + she come home, Mother?" And another feels so too; who is it? + + Your + Father. + + I forgot to write how much _Kit_ missed you. + +On her eighth birthday, her father writes: + + For Louisa + 1840 + + Two Passions strong divide our Life, + Meek gentle Love, or boisterous Strife. + + Love--Music Anger--Arrow + Concord Discord + From her Father + + On her eighth birthday Nov. 29th. + +At ten, her birthday greeting from her father is this: + + For Louisa + 1842 + + My daughter, + + This is your birthday: you are ten years of age to-day. I sought + amidst my papers for some pretty picture to place at the top of + this note, but I did not find anything that seemed at all + expressive of my interest in your well-being, or well-doing, and + so this note comes to you without any such emblem. Let me say, + my honest little girl, that I have had you often in my mind + during my separation from you and your devoted mother, and + well-meaning sisters, while on the sea or the land, and now that + I have returned to be with you and them again, meeting you daily + at fireside, at table, at study, and in your walk, and + amusements, in conversation and in silence, being daily with + you, I would have you feel my presence and be the happier, and + better that I am here. I want, most of all things, to be a + kindly influence on you, helping you to guide and govern your + heart, keeping it in a state of sweet and loving peacefulness, + so that you may feel how good and kind is that Love which lives + always in our breasts, and which we may always feel, if we will + keep the passions all in stillness and give up ourselves + entirely to its soft desires. I live, my dear daughter, to be + good and to do good to all, and especially to you and your + mother and sisters. Will you not let me do you all the good that + I would? And do you not know that I can do you little or none, + unless you give me your affections, incline your ears, and + earnestly desire to become daily better and wiser, more kind, + gentle, loving, diligent, heedful, serene. The good Spirit comes + into the Breast of the meek and loveful to abide long; anger, + discontent, impatience, evil appetites, greedy wants, + complainings, ill-speakings, idlenesses, heedlessness, rude + behaviour and all such, these drive it away, or grieve it so + that it leaves the poor misguided soul to live in its own + obstinate, perverse, proud discomfort, which is the very _Pain of + Sin_, and is in the _Bible_ called the worm that never dies, the + gnawing worm, the sting of _CONSCIENCE_: while the pleasures of + love and goodness are beyond all description--a peacefulness + that passes all understanding. I pray that my daughter may know + much of the last, and little of the first of these feelings. I + shall try every day to help her to the knowledge and love of + this good _Spirit_. I shall be with her, and as she and her + sisters come more and more into the presence of this Spirit, + shall we become a family more closely united in loves that can + never sunder us from each other. + + This your + Father + in Hope and Love + on your + Birthday + + Concordia, + Nov. 29, 1842. + +To little Elizabeth the letters were few. The child was so constantly +the companion of father and mother, that by speech rather than written +word, their messages were given. But on her fifth birthday, her father +carefully printed this letter: + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + For Elizabeth + 1840 + + I I I I I Years + one two three four five + BIRTH-DAY + in the + COTTAGE + + My very dear little girl, + + You make me very happy every time I look at your smiling + pleasant face--and you make me very sorry every time I see your + face look cross and unpleasant. You are now five years old. You + can keep your little face pleasant all the time, if you will + try, and be happy yourself, and make everybody else happy too. + Father wants to have his little girl happy all the time. He + hopes her little friends and her presents and plays will + make her happy to-day; and this little note too. Last birthday + you were in Beach Street, in the great City, now you are at your + little cottage in the country where all is pretty and pleasant, + and you have fields and woods, and brooks and flowers to please + my little Queen, and keep her eyes, and ears, and hands and + tongue and feet, all busy. This little note is from + + FATHER, + + who loves his little girl very much, and knows that she loves + him very dearly. + + Play, play, + All the day, + Jump and run + Every one, + Full of fun, + All take + A piece of cake, + For my sake. + +His wish to encourage the little girl in her efforts to be good, kind, +gentle, and patient, and his appreciation of her accomplishment, is set +forth in this characteristic little note: + + Concord, Cottage, + February 2nd, 1842. + + My dear Elizabeth, + + You give me much pleasure by your still, quiet manners, and your + desire to do things, without asking impatiently and selfishly + for others to help you without trying first to help yourself. + Trying is doing; doing is but trying; try then always and you + will do; and every one loves to help those who try. I will print + a little sentence for you in large letters and you who have + already found it so easy to do things for yourself will, I dare + say, remember it, and follow it too--This is it-- + + TRY FIRST: AND + THEN ASK: AND + TRY PATIENTLY TILL + YOU HAVE TRIED + YOUR BEST: AND + YOU WILL NOT NEED + TO ASK AT ALL. + Trying is the only + Schoolmaster + whose + Scholars + always + Succeed. + Your Father. + + Cottage, + Feb. 2nd. + +Little May, the youngest, was the pet, not only of the Alcott household, +but of all the Alcott kin. This quaint little dolly letter, written to +her by her Uncle Junius, has been framed and hangs to-day in the library +of May Alcott's nephew, John: + + Gift of Junius S. Alcott + to + Abby. + + A + Little Face + once smiling + woke + to + greet, the day, + with sport and play, + Hands) on her Birthday, in shaking (Hands + with her sisters, + and, her visitors, + that, came, to, chime, + a, happy, time, with, Lizzy, + To, give, you, pleasure, uncle, + gives, this, treasure, to you, so, sweet, + So, keep, it, neat, and please, my, + Brother, & your Mother, by always, + finding that, by, minding, you + are, the kindest, little girl, that, + that, ever + stood d, in, + (Shoes) (Shoes) + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + THE MOTHER'S INFLUENCE + + +UPON the lives of all four of her daughters the mother's influence +rested like a benediction. It is felt in her letters; it is reflected in +the journals of her girls and in the musings of Bronson Alcott, as set +down in his voluminous journals. And the mother spirit hovers over +Orchard House, where "Little Women" was written and lived. + +While letters to Anna from her mother are missing, Anna's journal shows +how vital was Mrs. Alcott's power in the upbuilding of her noble +character. Louisa in "Little Women" has said that the girls gave their +hearts into their mother's keeping, their souls into their father's. +Anna's letters bear eloquent testimony to the strong, helpful, cheery +influence of the mother upon the child. Among the first was this letter, +written by Anna when she was five years old and visiting Mr. Alcott's +family at Wolcott: + + _Letter to Mrs. Alcott._ + Wolcott Aug. 12th, 1836. + _Friday Morning._ + + My dear Mother, + + I have to go away by myself and cry because I want to see you so + much, and little sister Lizy and Louisa. Doctor Fuller is + coming to cure Grandmother. i shall see you in a few days. You + have a splendid husband + + Anna + V years of age-- + +(On this she had drawn her hand.) + +She was six years old when she wrote this: + + Dear Mother, + + I have not had a note from you for a great while. You wanted + some wafers yesterday will you accept of them from me There is + not many but it is all that I have got. I am very glad my + birthday is so near for as I grow older, I hope I shall grow + better and more useful to you, I hope soon we shall be settled + down in some comfortable little home of our own and then shall + be contented and happy I hope. I must go to my sums now, so + goodbye dearest mother + + Your loving Anna + +A letter eloquent of the tender relation between mother and child is +this written during the Fruitlands period: + + For + + Dearest mother + fruitlands. + + Dear mother. + + I wish that you would come to the table again. I enjoy my meals + much better when you are at the table. Was not "Heraclitus" that + father read about to-day, a dear good man, it seems as though I + wanted to hug him up and kiss him. I wish men had understood his + thoughts better than they did he would have been happier I + think. I have enjoyed this morning readings and conversations + better than I have before for a good while, I suppose, because I + talked and I understood it so well. I do not write to you very + often dear mother but I love to dearly when I feel like it, and + I love to have letters from you. I have not been as good as I + wish I had this week. I send a little bunch of flowers to you + they are not very pretty but they are beautifully made and I + thought you would like them. I had a beautiful time walking this + morning with Louisa. Good bye dearest mother from your loving + + Anna. + +Many copies of her mother's letters are found in Louisa's journals, +showing the daughter's intense, almost idolatrous affection. Louisa +admired, respected, and loved her father, but to her mother her +tenderest thought was given. Marmee understood the wayward, +tempestuous, lovable child as no one else did, not even loyal Anna, +or admiring Elizabeth. On her birthday the mother writes to Louisa: + + My dear little girl, + + Will you accept this doll from me on your 7th birthday. She will + be a quiet play mate for my active Louisa for seven years more. + Be a kind mamma and love her for my sake. + + Your mother. + + Beach St., Boston, 1839. + +Louisa was ten when this birthday letter was sent: + + Cottage in Concord. + + Dear Daughter, + + Your 10th birthday has arrived, may it be a happy one, & on each + returning birthday may you feel new strength and resolution to be + gentle with sisters, obedient to parents, loving to everyone & + happy in yourself. + + I give you the pencil case I promised, for I have observed that + you are fond of writing & wish to encourage the habit. + + Go on trying, dear, & each day it will be easier to be & do good. + You must help yourself, for the cause of your little troubles is + in yourself, & patience & courage only will make you what mother + prays to see you her good and happy girl. + +During the Fruitlands period, when Louisa was eleven, she found this +little note tucked carefully away in a spot where only she would find +and read it: + + Fruitlands. + + My dear, + + Thank you for your sweet note and sweeter poetry. The second + verse is very good. Your love of nature is pure and true. It is + a lovely school in which good lessons may be learned. The happy + industry of birds, the beautiful lives of flowers, the music of + brooks all help-- + + "The little fountain flows + So noiseless thro the wood, + The wanderer tastes repose, + And from the silent flood + Learns meekly to do good." + +In the following letter, a pretty little deference to the child's own +personality is shown by the mother, in that way bringing out in the +child respect and deference for others: + + Dear Daughter, + + I hope you will not consider me an intruder for stopping a + moment in your "poet's corner" to admire the neatness of your + desk, the sweetness of your poetry, the beauty of the prospect + from your window. Cherish this love of nature, dear, enjoy all + it gives you, for God made these helps to charm contemplation, + and they strengthen the noble desire to be or to do all that is + sent for our training & our good. Heaven be about you my child, + is mother's Sunday prayer. + +Louisa Alcott filled her diary with letters from her mother, +occasionally adding in later life annotations of her own. This letter +from her mother when Louisa was eleven is an example: + + (From Louisa Alcott's Diary.) + Concord, 1843. + + Dear Louy, + + I enclose a picture for you which I always liked very much, for + I have imagined that you might be just such an industrious + daughter & I such a feeble but loving mother, looking to your + labor for my daily bread. Keep it for my sake, & your own, for + you and I always like to be grouped together. + + Mother. + + [Illustration: ABIGAIL MAY, MRS. A. BRONSON ALCOTT. + From a daguerreotype. + _Page 106._] + +Then follows the picture and the lines written by Louisa in her +journal: + + To Mother. + + I hope that soon dear mother, you & I may be + In the quiet room my fancy has so often made for thee, + The pleasant sunny chamber, the cushioned easy chair, + The books laid for your reading, the vase of flowers fair. + The desk beside the window where the sun shines warm and bright, + And there in ease and quiet, the promised book you write, + While I sit close beside you, content at last to see, + That you can rest dear mother, & I can cherish thee. + +Louisa lived to see her hope realized and the dream of many years a +beautiful reality. + +Like most writers, Louisa was moody, and in her hours of depression and +despondency she looked upon her work as a failure and herself as a +useless drag upon the family. At such times Marmee invariably came to +the rescue and persuaded her discouraged daughter to use the pen she was +ready to lay down. Even in Louisa's childhood, when her only promise of +future literary achievement were her tragedies and melodramas of lurid +style, little gifts show the mother's faith and pride in her daughter's +work. So did her letters, of which this is an example: + + Dear Louisa: + + I sometimes stray about the house and take a peep into the + journal. Your pages lately are blank. I am sure your life has + many fine passages well worth recording, and to me they are + always precious. Anything like intellectual progress in my + children seems to compensate for much disappointment & + perplexity in my own life. Do write a little each day, dear, if + but a line, to show me how bravely you begin the battle, how + patiently you wait for the rewards sure to come when the victory + is nobly won. + + Ever yrs. + Mother. + +On her fourteenth birthday the mother accompanies the gift of a pen with +this little poem: + + Oh, may this pen your muse inspire, + When wrapt in pure poetic fire, + To write some sweet, some thrilling verse; + A song of love or sorrow's lay, + Or duty's clear but tedious way + In brighter hope rehearse. + Oh, let your strain be soft and high, + Of crosses here, of crowns beyond the sky; + Truth guide your pen, inspire your theme, + And from each note joy's music stream. + +Louisa Alcott owed much to her mother's example and perhaps even more to +her mother's influence. This letter, carefully preserved in the +daughter's journal, reveals a wealth of mother-love and of God-given +wisdom: + + 15th Birthday, + Hillside. + + Dearest, + + Accept this pen from your mother and for her sake use it freely + & worthily that each day of this your fifteenth year may + testify to some good word or thought or work. + + I know there will be born into your spirit new hopes, new gifts, + for God helps the loving, trusting heart that turns to Him. Lift + up your soul to meet the highest, for that alone will satisfy + your yearning, aspiring nature. + + Your temperament is a peculiar one, & there are few who can + really help you. Set about the formation of character & believe + me you are capable of obtaining a noble one. Industry, patience, + love, creates, endures, gives all things, for these are the + attributes of the Almighty, & they make us mighty in all things. + May eternal love sustain you, infinite wisdom guide you, & the + peace which passeth understanding reward you, my daughter. + + Mother. + Nov. 29th, 1846. + +Deeds, not words, characterized Elizabeth Alcott, as readers of "Little +Women" will recall. She was about seven when she sent this letter, one +of the very few she wrote, to her mother: + + May, Friday 29. + + Dear Mother, + + I thank you very much for your note. I will try to write better + than I have done. I have not always had a good pen. I hope I + shall improve in all my studies this summer. I hope I can read + German & French very well, and know a great deal about the + countries. I must write my journal now so I will bid you good + bye. + + From your loving + Elizabeth. + +Birthdays were always celebrated with much rejoicing in the Alcott +household, the gift made secondary to the spirit of the day. From the +time they were old enough to print, the Alcott children on the mother's +birthday made her some little gift, accompanying it with a note. Abba +May or May, as she was always called, at nine years old, began in prose +but lapsed into poetry: + + Dear Mother, + + I wish you a very happy birthday. I hope you will find my + present Useful, and when you wear it think of me. I have taken a + great-deal of Pleasure in making it for you. Please take this + Present mother on your 49 birthday + + With the dearest Love and wishes of your little daughter A. + +With Mrs. Alcott, hardship, poverty, the grief of seeing her husband +misunderstood and often scoffed at, never lessened her love for him, or +her contentment in the marriage relation. The year following her +marriage in a letter to her brother she wrote: "My father has never +married a daughter or son more completely happy than I am. I have cares, +and soon they will be arduous ones, but with the mild, constant, and +affectionate sympathy and aid of my husband, with the increasing health +and loveliness of my quiet and bright little Anna, with good health, +clear head, grateful heart and ready hand,--what can I not do when +surrounded by influences like this?" + +Ideals were never shattered; illusions, if so they may be called, were +never lost by Mrs. Alcott through the stormy years that laid between the +first happy months of her married life and the sunset days when all her +burdens were laid down. To her, the husband who was so long denied +material success and intellectual sympathy ever remained the lover and +friend. Her admiration for him was unbounded, her faith in him complete. +So high she held him in heart and mind, that it was difficult even for +those who loved him most to appreciate her estimate of him as Poet, +Philosopher, and Sage. + +Concerning the most famous portrait ever made of Bronson Alcott, done in +crayons by Mrs. Richard Hildredth, wife of the historian and aunt of the +portrait painter, George Fuller, which, beautiful as it was, did not +satisfy the wife's ideal, Mrs. Alcott writes: + + A tinge of the incomprehensible lies softly around it, a field + of atmosphere, as if she had worked with down from an angel's + wing rather than with a crayon,--as if the moonlight had cast a + shadow on the lights of her picture, and a divinity had touched + with a soft shade, the dark portion of the figure. Mrs. + Hildredth has changed the costume from a dress suit to a mantle + draped about the shoulders. This, I do not like. The chaste + simplicity of Mr. Alcott's dress is more in character and + keeping with the severe simplicity and rectitude of his life. + Louisa admirably describes her father's appearance as she + met him at the cars. "His dress was neat and poor. He looked + cold and thin as an icicle, but serene as God." After such a + testimony, from such a daughter, he can afford to dress shabbily. + +Contentment, whatever her lot, was an attribute of Marmee; she +underestimated herself always. Unquestionably, Louisa inherited her +literary gift quite as much from mother as from father, and flashes of +the quaint humor so delightful in the daughter's books are found in the +mother's letters. To a friend she writes: "My gifts are few. I live, +love and learn, and find myself more content every day of my life with +humble conditions." + +Louisa Alcott never laid claim to poetic gift, but on a few occasions +her verses take to themselves true poetic beauty. One of the most +exquisite of these poems was written by her on the death of her mother, +and was first published anonymously in the "Masque of Poets" of 1878: + + TRANSFIGURATION + In Memoriam + + Mysterious death; who in a single hour + Life's gold can so refine, + And by thy art divine + Change mortal weakness to immortal power: + + Bending beneath the weight of eighty years, + Spent with the noble strife + Of a victorious life, + We watched her fading heavenward, through our tears. + + But ere the sense of loss our hearts had wrung, + A miracle was wrought: + And swift as happy thought + She lived again--brave, beautiful and young. + + Age, pain and sorrow dropped the veils they wore, + And showed the tender eyes + Of angels in disguise, + Whose discipline so patiently she bore. + + The past years brought their harvest rich and fair; + While memory and love, + Together fondly wove + A golden garland for the silver hair. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + CHILDREN'S DIARIES + + +THE Alcott children were brought up to think for themselves, to reflect, +and to give expression to their thoughts. Never laughed at, they were +not afraid to speak or write of what was in their minds. Each kept a +diary, and no incident that concerned the little girls was too trivial +for mention in the record of the day. These incidents, collected, give a +more comprehensive view of the Alcotts as a family than do the father's +voluminous journals. + + [Illustration: ANNA BRONSON ALCOTT. + From a daguerreotype. + _Page 122._] + +When Anna was ten, she gravely explains under date of April 13, 1841: + + Father was too unwell to come down stairs and mother ironed, + Louisa and I helped a little while. I wrote my journal and a + journal for Louisa as she thought she could not write well + enough. I had no other lessons than that. We watched a little + spider and gave it some water to drink. In the afternoon mother + read loud the story of the good aunt or part of it while we + sewed on the clean clothes I mended up the holes and Louisa and + Lizzy sewed on a sheet. In the evening we played mother lets us + play in the evening. We went to bed soon. + +This sewing bee recalls the long evenings in the March home, described +in "Little Women," when the four girls and the mother sewed dutifully +on sheets for Aunt March, dividing seams into countries, discussing +Europe, Asia, Africa, and America as they stitched. + +When she was twelve, Anna's literary aspirations sought a vent in +attempted poetry. Later she collaborated with Louisa in writing the +"Comic Tragedies." Anna's confidante and comrade, Louisa, was frequently +the victim of these poetic effusions, her reception of which gives quite +a line on her ardent temperament. This entry in Anna's journal for April +23, 1843, is eloquent: + + This morning I rose pretty early--After breakfast I read and + wrote stories. In the afternoon I wrote some letters and the + following one to Louisa: + + Louisa dear + With love sincere + Accept this little gift from me + It is with pleasure + I send this treasure + And with it send much love to thee. + + Sister dear + Never fear + God will help you if you try. + Do not despair + But always care + To be good and love to try. + + In the evening I read in a book called 'Stories on the + Lord's-prayer.' I talked with Louisa after I went to bed and she + pinched me on my leg. + +Two or three years later Anna writes: + + Monday. + + Mother went to Boston and Louisa and I cleaned house all day. I + love order above all things and I take great pleasure in seeing + all neat about the house. + + Tuesday. + + I worked hard till 2 o'clock when we all met to sew while mother + read aloud from "Miss Bremers Brothers and Sister's." It is most + beautiful such a happy family. I think Miss Bremer would make a + lovely mother the mothers in her books are so sweet and she has + beautiful idear's about family's. I love to read natural + stories. + + Wednesday 30th. + + We rose very early and eat breakfast. I think it is a dreadful + thing to grow old and not be able to fly about, but then I + suppose I shall not care about flying when I grow older, still + it is horrid to think about being an old woman all wrinkled and + blind. I wish I could keep young forever. I should love to live + among all those I love and be with them all the time. + +Reading was a part of the daily routine in the Alcott household, and +Anna's taste for German recalls vividly certain episodes between Meg and +John Brooks in "Little Women." + + Friday 18th. + + I read one of Krummacher's parables in German. I think they are + very beautiful, the language is so elegant. I love to hear + beautiful words and these stories are told so simply and are + full of such sweet thought. I found a great many which have + never been translated and I intend to try myself to translate + them. I think it is the pleasantest thing I do to read German. + It is such a splendid language. I mean Elizabeth shall learn to + read it, she will enjoy it so much. + + Saturday 19th. + + In the afternoon I sewed and Louisa read me a very silly story + called 'The Golden Cup.' I think there is a great deal of + nonsense written now a days, the papers are full of silly + stories. + + Sunday 20th. + + I have been reading lately a very beautiful book given me by my + mother. It is "Characteristics of Women" by Mrs. Jameson. I like + it very much. It is a description of Shakespear's Heroines, + Portia is my favorite, she was so noble and I liked the Trial + scene better than any of Shakespears that I ever read. I think + this part is beautiful. + + 'Let music sound while he doth make his choice; + Then if he love he make a swan like end + Fading in music.' + + I think this was a beautiful idea. + + I passed a pleasant morning in school, translating one of + Krummacher's beautiful parables. I find great pleasure in this. + I like German better than I do French. I want much to study + Italian. I have tried myself several times but cannot manage it + without help. I think I should be very happy if I could go to + school. I think about it most all the time and when I am in bed + I imagine myself in Boston going to Miss Peabody's school with + other girls and know that I am learning something. And I think + I lead rather too solitary a life. I love to see people. Mother + read in the afternoon from Miss Sedgwick's Letters. It was about + the Germans. She says they are a very cheerful people and though + poor yet they always have a happy smile and cheerful face. That + their manners are beautiful. They are so kind and simple. I know + I should love them, for I like everything German, except their + food, which I think must be horrid, greasy cabbage and sour + bread. That seems bad. I should think they are so fond of + beautiful things; music, poetry and flowers, that they would not + like such stuff. + + September, 1845. + Friday 1st. + + I walked before breakfast, the sun was bright and there was a + cool wind. The lane was full of beautiful flowers and the grass + was green and fresh. I had a lovely walk and gathered a bunch of + goldenrod, spirian and gerandia. Everything was so beautiful + that all my unhappy thoughts of last night flew away. I + sometimes have strange feelings, a sort of longing after + something I don't know what it is. I have a great many wishes. I + spent the day in the usual manner, sewing and studying. In the + evening Louisa and I walked through the lane and talked about + how we should like to live and dress and imagined all kinds of + beautiful things. + + Sunday 3rd. + + I sewed all day and mother read from "Miss Sedgwick's Letters." + I will write a piece of poetry, as I have nothing very pleasant + to write about: + + "Oh when thy heart is full of fears + And the way is dim to Heaven + When the sorrow and the sin of years + Peace from thy soul has driven + Then through the mist of falling tears + Look up and be forgiven. + + "And then rise up and sin no more + And from thy dark ways flee + Let Virtue o'er thy appetites + Have full and perfect mastery + And the kindly ones that hover o'er + Will ever strengthen thee. + + "And though thou art helpless and forlorn + Let not thy heart's peace go + And though the riches of this world are gone + And thy lot is care and woe + Faint not, but journey ever on + True wealth is not below. + + "Oh, falter not but still look up + Let Patience be thy guide + Bless the rod and take the cup + And trustfully abide + Let not temptation vanquish thee + And the Father will provide." + + Louisa composed these lines, which I think are beautiful. She is + a beautiful girl and writes as good poetry as Lucretia Davidson, + about whom so much has been written. I think she will write + _something great one of these days_. As for me I am perfect in + nothing. I have no genius. I know a little of music, a little of + French, German and Drawing, but none of them well. I have a + foolish wish to be something _great_ and I shall probably spend my + life in a kitchen and die in the poor-house. I want to be Jenny + Lind or Mrs. Seguin and I can't and so I cry. Here is another of + Louisa's pieces to mother. + + "God comfort thee dear mother, + For sorrow sad and deep + Is lying heavy on thy heart + And this hath made thee weep. + + "There is a Father o'er us, mother, + Who orders for the best + And peace shall come ere long, mother, + And dwell within thy breast. + + "Then let us journey onward, mother, + And trustfully abide, + The coming forth of good or ill + Whatever may betide." + +Helpfulness was encouraged in the Alcott household; habits of industry +were carefully fostered. The Alcott children worked when they worked, +played when they played, but wasted hours were unknown. They were taught +to make the most of every day. When Anna was seventeen she wrote in her +diary: + + August, 1848. + Thursday 17th. + + Lizzy and I are making plans for spending our days usefully. + Here is mine. + + Plan. + + Rise at half past 4, bathe, dress and walk till half past 5. + + Dress and bathe the children. + + Breakfast at 7. Work till 9. School till 12. Work till 2. + + Sew till 4. Practice till 5. + + Hear Lizzy recite German and French till 6. Supper. + + This will keep me pretty busy, but I find I accomplish so much + more when I have a plan and certain times for certain things. I + never can do things without order. I like to have something + planned for every moment of the day, so that when I get up in + the morning I may know what to do. I wish I could be learned. + +An entry in Louisa's diary during the Fruitlands period gives this +insight into one of her average days, when a child of eleven: + + I rose at five, and after breakfast washed the dishes and then + helped mother work. I took care of May in the afternoon. In the + evening I made some pretty things for my dolly. Father and Mr. + Lane had a talk and father asked us if we saw any reason for us + to separate. Mother wanted to, she is so tired. I like it, but + not the school part or Mr. L. + +Note, too, that when it came to a conference concerning family affairs, +the father asked the advice of his eleven-year-old daughter, instead of +following the more customary method of withholding from her the family +confidence and deferring discussion of plans until the children had gone +to bed. + +"Know Thyself," was ever the aim of Bronson Alcott in the training of +his children, and Mr. Lane at Fruitlands followed this same line of +mental development. This is one of his sample lessons which Louisa +Alcott has copied into her journal: + + Sample of our Lessons + + "What virtues do you wish more of," asked Mr. L. I answer: + + Patience Love Silence + Obedience Generosity Perseverance + Industry Respect Self-denial + + "What vices less of?" + + Idleness Wilfulness Vanity + Impatience Impudence Pride + Selfishness Activity Love of cats + +In this same lesson comes the twelve-year-old Louisa's explanation of +the difference between faith and hope: + + Faith can believe without seeing; hope is not sure, but tries + to have faith when it desires. + +Louisa's love of nature, her trained habits of thought, her poetic +imagination, and her keen appreciation of beauty are indicated in this +entry in her journal, written at Fruitlands in 1843 or 1844, when she +was a child of ten or eleven: + + I wrote in my imagination book, and enjoyed it very much. Life + is pleasanter than it used to be, and I don't care about dying + any more. Had a splendid run, and got a box of cones to burn. + Sat and heard the pines sing a long time. Had good dreams, and + woke now and then to think, and watch the moon. I had a + pleasant time with my mind, for it was happy. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD + + +FAMILIAR to every reader of "Little Women" is the March family's quaint +brown house with its many windows, its old-fashioned garden, its homely, +homelike air, its unfailing hospitality. This home, as described by +Louisa M. Alcott, is a picture of the Alcott home at Concord, the scene +of the girlhood and young womanhood of the Alcott children. Many of +Louisa's books were written there; "Little Women" was lived there. In +Concord, Anna met John Pratt, and the first love story in "Little +Women" is Anna's life romance. There little Beth passed from the +material to the spiritual life, and Amy first developed the artistic +talents which later caused her work to be sought for by art museums and +private collectors. + +Anna's marriage was a great trial to Louisa, for from early childhood +the two girls had been inseparable companions, and after Anna's marriage +Louisa learned to look upon John as her brother. + +Louisa's diary in the April following the passing of Elizabeth touches +upon the change of homes in Concord, the absence of May, who was +studying art in Boston, of Elizabeth and of Anna: + + April. + + Came to occupy one wing of Hawthorne's house (once ours) while the + new one was being repaired. Father, mother and I kept house + together, May being in Boston, Anna at Pratt farm, & for the first + time Lizzy absent. I don't miss her as I expected to do, for she + seems nearer & dearer than before, & I am glad to know she is safe + from pain & age in some world where her innocent soul must be happy. + + Death never seemed terrible to me, & now is beautiful, so I cannot + fear it, but find it friendly and wonderful. + + [Illustration: ABBA MAY ALCOTT. + From a photograph. + _Page 142._] + +Amy's artistic efforts and her failures in "Little Women" are taken from +May's actual experiences in Concord. Turning the career of the youngest +of the Alcott girls into a romance earlier in "Little Women" than it +actually occurred in life, doubtless prevented Louisa Alcott from +chronicling the artistic success of her youngest sister, a success to +which she largely contributed and in which she took great pride. + +May Alcott's pictures are found to-day in art museums and in leading +private collections in this country and abroad. Her copies of Turner are +remarkable. In the Kensington Gallery in London students are given them +to study in preference to the originals. Several fine examples are in +American museums, and a few are owned by members of the Alcott family. + +When the Alcotts moved into Orchard House, the girls painted and +papered the interior themselves. May filled the nooks and corners with +panels, on which she painted birds and flowers. Over the fireplaces she +inscribed mottoes in Old English characters. + +The study in Orchard House was the real center of the household. For the +chimney piece Ellery Channing wrote an epigram, which May Alcott painted +upon it, and which has been used in the stage reproduction of "Little +Women": + + "The Hills are reared, the Valleys scooped in vain, + If Learning's Altars vanish from the Plain." + +In Orchard House to-day, walls, doors, and window casings are etched +with May Alcott's drawings, many preserved under glass, including a +miniature portrait of a little girl, naively and modestly inscribed "The +Artist." + +High thoughts and cheerful minds triumphed over poverty in those Concord +days. Shortly after the family's return from Fruitlands, Louisa wrote +for Ellen Emerson the fairy stories, "Flower Fables." She was at the +time only sixteen. This was her earliest published work, and it was many +years before she achieved literary fame, although, as did Jo in "Little +Women," she materially helped in the support of the family by writing +lurid tales. + +Literature rather than commerce freed the Alcotts from the burden of +debt. Louisa's fame was the result, neither of accident, nor of a +single achievement, but had for its background the whole generous past +of her family. Her "Hospital Sketches" were her letters home, when she +was serving as hospital nurse during the Civil War. "Little Women" is a +chronicle of her family. Louisa certainly made good use of the +vicissitudes of the Alcotts. She always saw the funny side and was not +afraid to make book material of the home experiences, elevating or +humiliating. Her books number between twenty-five and thirty. Nearly +every one takes its basic idea from some real experience. The books +written by the Alcott family, including some eight or ten published by +Mr. Alcott, Louisa's output, and one or two written by May, fill two +shelves of an alcove devoted to Concord authors in the Alcott town +library. + +Anna's little sons, familiarly known in the Alcott household as Freddie +and Johnnie, or Jack, gave to Bronson Alcott in his later days fresh +opportunity for his favorite study--childhood. To both boys came +frequent messages and gifts from Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Louisa. + +Louisa Alcott sent to Freddie this poem on his third birthday: + + A song for little Freddie + On his third Birthday. + + Down in the field + Where the brook goes, + Lives a white lammie + With a little black nose. + + He eats the grass so green, + He drinks the "la la" sweet, + "Buttertups" and daisies, + Grow all about his feet. + + The "birdies" they sing to him, + The big sun in the sky, + Warms his little "Toe-toes," + And peeps into his eye. + + He's a very gentle lammie, + He never makes a fuss, + He never "saps his marmar," + He never says "I muss." + + He hops and he runs, + "Wound and wound" all day, + And when the night comes, + He goes "bye low" on the hay. + + In a nice little barn, + Where the "moo-moos" are; + Freddie says "Good night," + But the lammie he says "Baa!" + + To be sung by Marmar with appropriate accompaniment of gesture, etc. + +On the outside of the letter appears: + + A little song for Freddie, + On his third birthday, + With "lots" of loving kisses, + From his Wee-wee far away. + +On his sixth birthday Grandpa contributes: + + Concord, Freddie's + 6th Birthday, + 1869. + + Dear Freddy, + + I give you for your Birth Day Present this new Picture Book. It + has plain words for you to pick out and read. The stories are + short and about things that you know. Now, my little scholar, + look among the leaves every day, and see how many words you can + tell,--Very soon you will find you can read whole pages, spell + the whole book through, and write the stories, word for word on + your slate or in your little writing book. Then you will not be + a little Dunce, and when Grandpa comes to see you, you will be + glad to show him how well you can read. + + Grandma gives the top to Johnny. + From Grandpa. + +Grandma, not to be outdone, sent this: + + Dear Freddy, + + If worms give us the silk thread--can't we find time enough to + find out how the Fabric is made which dresses are formed + of--minutes and days--ours. Days and Years are passing away--let + us be busy--and I guess we will get to the Vienna Exposition-- + + "How doth the little busy Bee" + + Improve each shining hour--Be a Bee--and your hours will be too + few for the Flowers of Science and the Wheels of Use. Grandma + will help you with her one dim eye and Grandpa will explain a + great deal to you with his Shining Light--Mama with your help + will make you a true, good man.-- + + 1873. + +On his twelfth birthday Aunt Louisa again lapsed into poetry: + + F. A. P. + + Who likes to read a fairy tale, + Or stories told of sword and sail, + Until his little optics fail? + Our boy. + + Who loves his father's watch to wear + And often draw it out with care + Upon its round white face to stare? + Our boy. + + Who rather proud of his small feet + When wearing slippers new and neat, + And stockings red as any beet? + Our boy. + + Who in his pocket keeps his hands + As round the house he "mooning" stands + Or reads the paper like the mans? + Our boy. + + Who likes to "boss" it over Jack, + And sometimes gives a naughty whack, + But gets it heartily paid back? + Our boy. + + Who likes to have a birthday frolic + And eats until he has a colic, + That for the time is diabolic? + Our boy. + + Who is the dearest little lad, + That aunt or mother ever had, + To love when gay and cheer when sad? + Our boy. + + May angels guard him with their wings, + And all brave, good and happy things, + Make nobler thou than crowned kings. + Our boy. + + March 28th, 1875. + +John, the original of Daisy in "Little Women," received in his babyhood +days from Aunt Louisa, some tiny blue stockings with this verse: + + Two pair of blue hose, + For Johnny's white toes, + So Jack Frost can't freeze em, + Nor darned stockings tease em, + So pretty and neat + I hope the small feet + Will never go wrong, + But walk straight and strong, + The way father went. + We shall all be content, + If the dear little son + Be a second good John. + +On his tenth birthday, both Grandpa and Grandma Alcott sent these +characteristic greetings to their younger grandson: + + Grandma Alcott to Johnny. + + 10th birthday. June 24th. 1875. + + Giving song, all day long, + Under the elm or willow; + With sunshine shed + On the little head + That rests on Grandma's pillow. + To and fro, + Let it go, + While inside piping cheery, + As he takes his rest + In his hang-bird's nest + Lies Grandma's little deary. + + * * * * * + + Grandpa Alcott to Johnny. + June 24th. 1875. + + A fine little sword + For gallant Capt. Jack, + As he marches down the hill + His army at his back. + + No giants will it kill + Since its only made for show, + And the best way to fight, + Is a kiss for a blow. + +In these days of private secretaries, labor-saving devices, and +specialization, it is difficult to comprehend the obstacles that Louisa +Alcott encountered in writing. Her day was filled with other tasks, +housework, sewing, teaching, nursing--yet the pen was never idle, the +busy brain was never still. Her power of concentration made it possible +for her to write under harassing conditions. This is her own description +of her methods of work: + + My methods of work are very simple and soon told. My head is my + study, and there I keep the various plans of stories for years + sometimes, letting them grow as they will till I am ready to + put them on paper. Then it is quick work, as chapters go down + word for word as they stand in my mind, and need no alteration. + I never copy, since I find by experience that the work I spend + the least time upon is best liked by critics and speakers. + + Any paper, any pen, any place that is quiet suit me, and I used + to write from morning till night without fatigue when "the steam + was up." Now, however, I am paying the penalty of twenty years + of over work, and can write but two hours a day, doing about + twenty pages, sometimes more, though my right thumb is useless + from writer's cramp. + + While a story is under way I live in it, see the people more + plainly than real ones around me, hear them talk, and am much + interested, surprised and provoked at their actions, for I seem + to have no power to rule them, and can simply record their + experiences and performances. + + Materials for the children's tales I find in the lives of the + little people about me, for no one can invent anything so droll, + pretty or pathetic as the sayings and doings of these small + actors, poets and martyrs. In the older books, the events are + mostly from real life, the strongest the truest, and I yet hope + to write a few of the novels which have been simmering in my + brain while necessity and unexpected success have confined me to + juvenile literature. + + I gave Mrs. Moulton many facts for her article in "Famous + Women," and there are many other sketches which will add more if + they are wanted. The first edition of "Jo's Boys" was twenty + thousand I believe, and over fifty thousand were soon gone. + Since January I know little about the sales. People usually ask + "How much have you made?" I am contented with a hundred + thousand, and find my best success in the comfort my family + enjoy; also a naughty satisfaction in proving that it was better + _not_ to "stick to teaching" as advised, but to write. + + [Illustration: LOUISA MAY ALCOTT. + From a daguerreotype. + _Page 160._] + +With all her love for her father, irreverent Louisa delighted in making +fun of him. The complacent philosopher, with his voluminous journals, +his several books in manuscript, his liking, despite the brilliancy of +his conversations, for the written rather than the spoken word, was a +wasteful user of paper and a careless dispenser of ink. That her father +enjoyed her good-natured banter is shown by the fact that in his journal +he has entered the following poem, written by Louisa at nineteen: + + From Louisa on my 52nd birthday. + Nov. 29th, 1851. + + To Father. + + A cloth on the table where dear Plato sits + By one of the Graces was spread + With the single request that he would not design + New patterns with black ink or red. + And when he is soaring away in the clouds + I beg he'll remember and think + Though the "blackbirds" are fair his cloth will be fairer + For not being deluged with ink. + May plenty of paper of pens and of quiet + To my dear pa forever be given + Till he has written such piles that when on the top + He can walk calmly on into Heaven. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS + + +RARE friendships existed among the great minds of that period, when +Transcendentalism in America was first talked and lived, a close bond of +sympathy uniting Bronson Alcott, Emerson, Thoreau, Ellery Channing, +Margaret Fuller, and Elizabeth Peabody. Such association made its +impress upon the Alcott daughters. Anna's diary is filled with +references to visits with the Emersons. Louisa's deal less with the +family and more with the intellectual life of the great philosopher, +whom she made her idol. Through life he was her stanch and +understanding friend. + +"The Apostles of the Newness" was the scoffing term applied to these +literary giants of New England by those who lacked the mental and +spiritual insight to recognize greatness in others. + +This attitude of ridicule was largely responsible for the continued +attacks upon the _Dial_, a quarterly issued by the Transcendentalists, +edited from 1840 to 1844 by Emerson, Margaret Fuller, George Ripley, and +Thoreau. Between its modest covers were many of the intellectual +masterpieces of the time: its rare volumes are still treasure-houses of +literature which to-day command any price. Mr. Alcott selected its title +and was to a large extent responsible for its policy. His Orphic +Sayings in the _Dial_, now looked upon as classics, were the butt of the +press at the time, and the derision of Boston society. + +In these Orphic Sayings, he gave this remarkable definition of Reform: +"Reforms are the noblest of facts. Extant in time, they work for +eternity: dwelling with men, they are with God." + +Conversation among these friends was neither trivial nor useless, and in +the Alcott circle, which included Emerson, Thoreau, Theodore Parker, +William Henry Channing, James Freeman Clarke, Elizabeth Peabody, Mrs. +Cheney, and other of the early Transcendentalists, later on augmented by +James Russell Lowell and Nathaniel Hawthorne, a series of drawing-room +symposiums was established, with Alcott, whom Emerson called "serious +and superior," as a leader. Much of the substance of these conversations +is found in the Alcott journals, and in the unpublished manuscripts of +the poet-philosopher. + +In Concord, the Alcotts once more enjoyed the literary companionship +they craved. Emerson was a near neighbor. Thoreau had his cabin at +Walden, where he had established "a community of one." To and from +Boston came others of the Transcendental group, and Concord became the +center of thought for New England. + +Thinking, however, was not the only occupation of Bronson Alcott. +Dreamer he was, but he delighted in toil and ever upheld the dignity of +labor, not ashamed nor afraid to work for hire as a laborer in his +neighbor's field, while nightly conducting drawing-room conversations +with a company of peers and students. + +When Thoreau built his cabin, Alcott helped him. They cut the trees from +Emerson's grove. While Emerson was abroad, they built a summer-house for +him on his grounds. It stood for many years, a picturesque temple of +friendship. William Henry Channing mentions a morning spent there, +reading Margaret Fuller's Italian letters. May Alcott has made drawings +of it, which were published in a volume of "Concord Sketches" that also +contained her drawing of Hawthorne's house. + +Mr. Alcott practically rebuilt Orchard House for his own family. Mrs. +Child, a friend of Mrs. Alcott, thus describes this home, which is now +preserved as a memorial to Louisa M. Alcott and is visited by thousands +every year: + + When they bought the place the house was so very old that it + was thrown into the bargain, with the supposition that it was + fit for nothing but firewood. But Mr. Alcott had an + architectural taste, more intelligible than his Orphic Sayings. + He let every old rafter and beam stay in its place, changed old + ovens and ash holes into Saxon arched alcoves, and added a + washerwoman's old shanty to the rear. The result is a house + full of queer nooks and corners, with all manner of juttings in + and out. It seems as if the spirit of some old architect had + dropped it down in Concord. + +Thoreau, master builder himself, has paid to Bronson Alcott this +tribute: + + One of the last of the philosophers, Connecticut gave him to + the world. He peddled first her wares, afterwards, as he + declares, his brains. These he peddles still, bearing for + fruit, only his brain, like the nut its kernel. His words and + attitude always suppose a better state of things than other men + are aquainted with, and he will be the last man to be + disappointed when the ages revolve. He has no venture in the + present. But though comparatively disregarded now, when his + day comes, laws unsuspected by most will take effect, and + rulers will come to him for advice. + +Emerson, who saw the boy mind beneath the philosopher's dignity, said +tenderly of Bronson Alcott: "He is certainly the youngest man of his age +we have seen. When I looked at his gray hairs, his conversation sounded +pathetic; but I looked again and they reminded me of the gray dawn." + +Even his friends, to say nothing of Louisa, occasionally poked fun at +him for chronicling so minutely all his thoughts. Ellery Channing called +his library, "Encyclopediea de Moi-meme, en cents volumes." Yet these +journals and records are now worth more than the fine library he +collected and in which he delighted. + +Emerson has thus described the origin of the Fruitlands community: + + On the invitation of James P. Greaves of London, the friend and + fellow-laborer of Pestalozzi in Switzerland, Mr. Alcott went to + England in 1842. Mr. Greaves died before his arrival, but Mr. + Alcott was received cordially by his friends, who had given his + name to their school, Alcott House, Ham, near London. He spent + several months in making acquaintance with various classes of + reformers. On his return to America, he brought with him two of + his English friends, Chas. Lane and H. C. Wright; and Mr. Lane + having bought a farm which he called Fruitlands, at Harvard, + Mass., they all went there to found a new community. + +The Fruitlands experiment and its failure have been immortalized by +Louisa Alcott in her "Transcendental Wild Oats." The detail of it is +thus described by a friend of the Alcott family, who had the story from +Bronson Alcott himself: + + The crop failures necessitated the community living on a barley + diet, as anything animal was not allowed, not even milk and + eggs. Now and then they gave a thought as to what they should + do for shoes when those they had were gone; for depriving the + cow of her skin was a crime not to be tolerated. The barley + crop was injured in harvesting, and before long want was + staring them in the face. The Alcotts remained at Fruitlands + till mid-winter in dire poverty, all the guests having taken + their departure as provisions vanished. Friends came to the + rescue, and, Mr. Alcott concluded with pathos in his voice, "We + put our little women on an ox-sled and made our way to Concord! + So faded one of the dreams of my youth. I have given you + the facts as they were; Louisa has given the comic side in + 'Transcendental Wild Oats'; but Mrs. Alcott could give you the + tragic side." + +Indeed, it was always Mrs. Alcott who could have given the tragic side, +skillfully as she kept her worries hidden. Her own family, indignant +because Bronson Alcott could not better provide the material needs for +his family, on more than one occasion besought the faithful wife to +leave him. + +A letter from her brother, urging this step, drew forth from her a +defense of Bronson Alcott which the husband enters in his journal as +follows: + + November + 1840 + + Passages of a letter from my wife to one who misapprehends and + perverts my life and purposes. + + "If I do not mistake the spirit as well as letter of your remark + you would have us believe that a righteous retribution has + overtaken us, (or my husband, and we are one,) and that the + world is justly punishing him for not having conciliated it, by + conforming to its wills and ways.--You say that my husband was + told ten years ago, that the world could not understand him. It + perhaps fell dead on his ears and ever will. There is no human + voice can convince him that the path he has chosen to tread, + thorny, bleak, solitary, as it is, is not the right one for him. + Just so did that man of Nazareth whom all the world profess to + admire and adore, but few to imitate; and these few are the + laughing-stock of the Christian Community. They are branded as + visionaries and fools. But this little band when alone and + disencumbered of idle observation, enjoy the recital of their + privations; they have been reviled, but they revile not again; + they know sorrow and are acquainted with grief; and yet there is + joy in that group of sinless men, such as angels might desire + to partake of. I am not writing poetry, but I have tried to + place before your mind, in as brief, but clear a manner as I am + able, our real condition, and Mr. Alcott's merit as a man, who, + though punished and neglected by a wicked world, has much to + console and encourage him in the confidence and cooperation of + some of the wisest and best men living. Ten such, were they + permitted in their several vocations to act as teachers, + preachers, and printers, would save our wicked city from the + ruin that awaits it. But they are turned, like the Nazarene, + into solitary places to lament the blindness and folly of + mankind, who are following the vain and fleeting shadow for the + real and abiding substance. But to return to Mr. Alcott, is he + to sell his soul, or what is the same thing, his principles, for + the bread that perisheth? No one will employ him in his way; he + cannot work in theirs, if he thereby involve his conscience. He + is so resolved in this matter that I believe he will starve and + freeze before he will sacrifice principle to comfort. In this, I + and my children are necessarily implicated: we make and mean to + make all the sacrifices we can to sustain him, but we have less + to sustain us in the spirit, and therefore, are more liable to + be overcome of the flesh. He has, for a long time gone without + everything which he could not produce by labor, from his own + place, that no one could in truth reproach him with wantonly + eating of the fruits of another's labor. + + He was sent for by friends in Hingham to talk with them; which + he did two evenings; his expenses were paid and $23. put into + his hands as a slight compensation for the benefit they felt he + had conferred upon them by his conversations. I should like to + copy the note accompanying it, but you never care to see how his + fellow fanatics rave on these holy themes, life, duty, destiny + of man. Thus he occasionally finds a market for his thoughts and + experiences, which, though inadequate to our support, is richly + prized as the honest gains of an innocent and righteous labor. + You spoke of his "poetical wardrobe" whether in satire or in a + worthier spirit, I cannot tell. However spiritual he may have + become, there is still enough of the carnal to feel the chills + of winter, and the chiller blasts of satire. His tatters are the + rags of righteousness and keep him warmer than they would anyone + whose spirit was less cheered and warmed by the fires of eternal + love and truth. + +An appreciative account of Mr. Alcott's famous school in the Masonic +Temple, Boston, is found in the "Record of a School," edited by +Elizabeth Peabody, published in 1835, republished in 1874. The +"Conversations with Children on the Gospels," edited by Mr. Alcott in +two volumes, appearing in 1836-1837, caused such a commotion in Boston +as to result in the downfall of the Temple School. Reading these +conversations to-day, one is impressed with the modern quality of their +thought. They were forerunners of that higher criticism, which with the +Bible student now supplants the old blind acceptance without reflection +of even obscure Biblical passages. + +On philosophy and religion Mr. Alcott and Miss Peabody delighted to talk +and write. Their discussion of the existence of evil is startlingly +modern. + +"I do not think that evil should be clothed in form by the imagination," +writes Miss Peabody to Mr. Alcott; "I think every effort should be made +to strip it of all individuality, all shaping and all coloring. And +the reason is, that Evil has in truth no substantial existence, that +it acquires all the existence it has from want of faith and soul +cultivation, and that this is sufficient reason why all cultivation +should be directed to give positiveness, coloring, shaping, to all +kinds of good--Good only being eternal truth." + +In reply, the philosopher thus comments in his diary: "Evil has no +positive existence, I agree with Miss Peabody, but it has usurped a +positive place and being in the popular imagination, and by the +imagination must it be made to flee away into its negative life. How +shall this be done? By shadowing forth in vivid colors the absolute +beauty and phenomena of good, by assuming evil not as positive, but as +negative." + +"I shall always love you for loving Alcott," writes Emerson to his +schoolmate and lifelong friend, the Reverend W. H. Furness. "He is a +great man, the god with the herdsman of Admetus. His conversation is +sublime; yet when I see how he is underestimated by cultivated people, +I fancy none but I have heard him talk." + +In the midst of slander and petty persecutions, Alcott writes in his +diary for April, 1837: + + I have been striving to apprehend the real in the seeming, to + strip ideas of their adventitious phrases and behold them in + their order and powers. I have sought to penetrate the showy + terrestrial to find the heavenly things. I have tried to + translate into ideas the language and images of spirit, and + thus to read God in his works. The outward I have seen as the + visage and type of the inward. Ever doth this same nature + double its design and stand forth--now before the inner, now + before the outer sense of man, at once substance and form, + image and idea, so that God shall never slip wholly from the + consciousness of the soul. + +Emerson, weary of seeing his friend misunderstood, urges him to give up +teaching and become an author, picturing as his golden view for Alcott +that one day he will leave the impracticable world to wag its own way, +sit apart, and write his oracles for its behoof. + +"Write! let them hear or let them forbear," he thunders. "The written +word abides until, slowly and unexpectedly, and in widely sundered +places, it has created its own church." + +The unreality of evil, as taught and believed by Alcott nearly a century +ago, laughed and scoffed at then, was twenty-five years later +practically the foundation of a belief which gained its first foothold +in New England, and, with headquarters in Boston, has spread, until +to-day its followers and churches circle the civilized globe--a new-old +religion, based on the literal acceptance of the teachings of Christ. +What to-day is called metaphysical teaching was in the Alcott period +scoffed at as Transcendentalism. + +Mr. Alcott's strict adherence to a vegetarian diet was also the topic of +ridicule from public and press, although the Alcott children seemed to +thrive on it, and certainly, as four-year-old Louisa once remarked, "Did +pitty well for a wegetable diet." + +Louisa, in her journal, gives this sample of the vegetarian wafers they +had at Fruitlands: + + Vegetable | Pluck your | Without flesh + diet and | body from | + sweet repose | the orchard; | diet there + Animal food | do not snatch | could be no + and nightmare. | it from the | blood-shedding + | shamble. | war. + + Appollo eats no | Snuff is no less snuff + flesh and has no | though accepted + beard; his voice is | from a gold box. + melody itself. | + +Bronson Alcott constantly sought self-improvement, and the shortcomings +of his early education were more than offset by his untiring study. +Realizing at one time his lack of a vocabulary, he comments in his +journal, that to rectify this he has just bought two books, "A +Symposium of Melancholy," and "Hunter on the Blood." + +In their memoirs of Bronson Alcott, F. B. Sanborn and W. T. Harris +have thus summed up his character: "He was the most filial son, the +most faithful lover, the most attached friend, the most generous +philanthropist of his time. And when he died, he left fewer enemies +than any man of equal age can have provoked or encountered in so long +a career." + +In his study of childhood, Mr. Alcott sought first to reach the mind, +recognizing that as "the God within us." He encouraged individuality in +his children, trying in their earliest years to make them think for +themselves. All through his teaching runs the boy's friendship with God, +and his sense of oneness with his Maker was a part of the divine +heritage he passed on to his daughters. + +He records in his diary a conversation with Anna, who was four, and +Louisa, who was two, after reading to them the story of Jesus, which he +made so vital that, given their choice, they asked for it in preference +to a fairy tale. Anna remarked that Jesus did not really die. "They +killed his body, but not his soul." Her father asked: "What is the soul, +Anna?" The little four-year-old replied: "It's this inside of me that +makes me feel and think and love." "And," said the father, "what became +of Jesus' soul?" Anna replied: "It went back to God." Whereat little +two-year-old Louisa asked: "Why, isn't Dod inside of me?" + +A note in the father's diary at the birth of Elizabeth records "Anna's +first interview with her sister" (Elizabeth a few hours old), and a day +later comes this record: "Anna and Louisa interview their sister." +Louisa, two years old, wishes to have the baby sister put in her arms, +when four-year-old Anna says warningly: "Treat her very carefully, +Louisa, she comes from God." What a beautiful thought to give a child of +the divine mystery of birth! + +Instead of asserting what he intended to make of his children, Alcott +encouraged the child to make itself, beginning when it was a small +baby, treating it as an individual, giving it opportunity to use its +mentality, instilling principles of right and wrong by suggestion. +Alcott never commanded. "You don't wish to do that," was his way, not +exacting blind obedience, but expressing his conviction that the child +wished to do right. + +To him, God was love. He had no fear of God, for perfect love had cast +out fear. This same spirit was manifested in all his children. To them +the change called Death was not to be dreaded; it was a stepping forward +and upward. + +This thought that death is not the end, but the beginning, is expressed +in one of Louisa's most beautiful poems: + + THOREAU'S FLUTE + + We sighing said, "Our Pan is dead; + His pipe hangs mute beside the river. + Around it wistful sunbeams quiver, + And Music's airy voice is fled. + Spring mourns as for untimely frost; + The bluebird chants a requiem; + The willow-blossom waits for him;-- + The Genius of the wood is lost." + + Then from the flute, untouched by hands, + There came a low, harmonious breath; + "For such as he there is no death-- + His life the eternal life commands; + Above man's aims his nature rose, + The wisdom of a just content + Made one small spot a continent + And tuned to poetry life's prose. + + "Haunting the hills, the stream, the wild, + Swallow and aster, lake and pine, + To him grew human or divine,-- + Fit mates for this large-hearted child. + Such homage Nature ne'er forgets, + And yearly on the coverlid + 'Neath which her darling lieth hid + Will write his name in violets. + + "To him no vain regrets belong, + Whose soul, that finer instrument, + Gave to the world no poor lament, + But wood-notes ever sweet and strong. + O lonely friend! he still will be + A potent presence, though unseen;-- + Steadfast, sagacious and serene; + Seek not for him--he is with thee." + +A visit to Sleepy Hollow suggests life, not death. Giant trees stretch +their branches over marble and granite monuments, as if in benediction. +"There is no death, for God is life," they seem to say. For them there +is no death. Emerson lives to-day, the great philosopher; so do Thoreau, +Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, and others of that mighty company. And who +shall say that Louisa Alcott is dead? She lives in the hearts of +thousands, and will go on living through the love they bear her. + +Bronson Alcott was a true disciple of Jesus Christ. He lived the example +set by his Master not alone in words and thoughts, but in deeds. He +lived through and beyond misunderstanding, ridicule, poverty, to see his +teachings respected, his name honored, to see the first glimmer of the +new light which was beginning to break over the world, the sunrise at +his own sunset. + +This thought is embodied in the last poem Louisa Alcott ever wrote: + + To my Father. + On his Eighty-Sixth Birthday. + + Dear Pilgrim, waiting patiently, + The long, long journey nearly done, + Beside the sacred stream that flows + Clear shining in the western sun; + Look backward on the varied road + Your steadfast feet have trod, + From youth to age, through weal and woe, + Climbing forever nearer God. + + Mountain and valley lie behind; + The slough is crossed, the wicket passed; + Doubt and despair, sorrow and sin, + Giant and fiend, conquered at last. + Neglect is changed to honor now, + The heavy cross may be laid down; + The white head wins and wears at length + The prophet's, not the martyr's crown. + + Greatheart and Faithful gone before, + Brave Christiana, Mercy sweet, + Are shining ones who stand and wait + The weary wanderer to greet. + Patience and Love his handmaids are, + And till time brings release, + Christian may rest in that bright room + Whose windows open to the east. + + The staff set by, the sandals off, + Still pondering the precious scroll, + Serene and strong he waits the call + That frees and wings a happy soul. + Then beautiful as when it lured, + The boy's aspiring eyes, + Before the pilgrim's longing sight, + Shall the Celestial City rise. + + + + + CHRONOLOGY + +It has been particularly the aim of the editors to lift these Little +Women Letters out of the biographical and into the narrative class. For +this reason dates have not been used with any degree of liberality, and +chronological facts have been minimized. + +However, as this is a story of the Alcott family, and seekers for +definite data will not be lacking, a chronological summary is herewith +furnished: + + Amos Bronson Alcott 1799-1888 + married + Abby May 1800-1877 + + Their Children + Anna Bronson 1831-1893 + Louisa May 1832-1888 + Elizabeth 1835-1858 + Abby May 1840-1879 + + Anna Bronson married John Bridge Pratt, 1860. + + Their Children + Frederick Alcott 1863-1910 + John Sewall 1865 + + Abby May married Ernst Nieriker, March, 1878. + + Children + Louisa May 1879 + + Frederick Alcott Pratt + married + Jessica Cate + February, 1888 + + Their Children + Bronson Alcott 1889 + Elizabeth Sewall 1891 + Louisa May 1900 + Frederick Woolsey 1902 + + Elizabeth Sewall married Alfred Redfield + June, 1913 + + [*]John Sewall Pratt + married + Eunie May Hunting + January, 1909 + +[*] John Sewall Pratt adopted in 1888 by Louisa May Alcott and +name changed to John Sewall Pratt Alcott. + + Children + Elverton Hunting + + Louisa May Nieriker 1878 + married + Ernst Rasim + + Children + Ernestine + + + + +Transcriber Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscores_. + +Small caps have been replaced with ALL CAP text. + +Spelling errors, grammatical errors, and typographical errors within +letters were not corrected, in order to preserve the flavor of the +historical record of those letters. After all, some of these letters +were written by girls as young as five. + +Some of the illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up +paragraphs, thus the page number of the illustration might not match the +page number in the List of Illustrations. + +On page 58, "reestablished" was replaced with "reestablished". + +On page 173, has a quotation mark at the beginning of "If I do not +mistake" but no closing quotation mark, and it is less than clear where +the closing quotation mark should be. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Women Letters from the House of +Alcott, by Louisa M. 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