Personal Sketches and Tributes, Part 2, from Volume VI., - The Works of Whittier: Old Portraits and Modern Sketches by John Greenleaf Whittier
page 19 of 41 (46%)
page 19 of 41 (46%)
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The world that I am passing through.
When I approach the setting sun, And feel my journey well-nigh done, May Earth be veiled in genial light, And her last smile to me seem bright. Help me till then to kindly view The world that I am passing through. And all who tempt a trusting heart From faith and hope to drift apart, May they themselves be spared the pain Of losing power to trust again. God help us all to kindly view The world that we are passing through. While faithful to the great duty which she felt was laid upon her in an especial manner, she was by no means a reformer of one idea, but her interest was manifested in every question affecting the welfare of humanity. Peace, temperance, education, prison reform, and equality of civil rights, irrespective of sex, engaged her attention. Under all the disadvantages of her estrangement from popular favor, her charming Greek romance of _Philothea_ and her _Lives of Madame Roland_ and the _Baroness de Stael_ proved that her literary ability had lost nothing of its strength, and that the hand which penned such terrible rebukes had still kept its delicate touch, and gracefully yielded to the inspiration of fancy and art. While engaged with her husband in the editorial supervision of the _Anti-Slavery Standard_, she wrote her admirable _Letters from New York_; humorous, eloquent, and picturesque, but still humanitarian in tone, which extorted the praise of even a pro-slavery |
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