Eminent women of the age : being narratives of the lives and deeds of the most prominent women of the present generation.

  • Parton, James, 1822-1891.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Eminent women of the age : being narratives of the lives and deeds of the most prominent women of the present generation. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material is part of the Elmer Belt Florence Nightingale collection. The original may be consulted at University of California Libraries.

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    *' study at Watertown was a favorite head-quarters of what were called the trausceudentalists of those days. Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Eipley, and the rest came often thither, in the days when the Dial was just emancipating American thought from old-world traditions. Afterwards, when Dr. Francis was appointed to the rather responsible and con- servative post of professor in the Cambridge Theological School, he still remained faithful to the spirit of those days, never repressing free inquiry, but always rejoicing to en- courage it. He was a man of rare attainments in a variety of directions, and though his great reading gave a desultory habit to his mind, and his thinking was not quite in pro- portion to his receptive power, he still was a most valuable instructor, as he was a most delightful friend. In face and figure he resembled the pictures of Martin Luther, and his habits and ways always seemed to me like those of some genial German professor. With the utmost frugality in other respects, he spent money almost profusely on books, and his library—part of which he bequeathed to Harvard College—was to me the most attractive I have overseen,— more so than even Theodore Parker's. His sister had un- doubtedly the superior mind of the two; but he who in- fluenced others so much must have influenced her still more. A dear good sister has she been to me; would that I had been half as good a brother to her ! This he wrote, in self- depreciation, long after. While he was fitting for college, a process which took but one year, she was his favorite com- panion, though more than six years younger. They read together, and she was constantly bringing him Milton and Shakespeare to explain. He sometimes mystified her,— as brothers will, in dealing with maidens nine years old, — and once told her that the raven down of darkness, which was made to smile, was but the fur of a black cat that sparkled when stroked; though it still perplexed her small brain,