My Mother... and My Teacher

She felt intensely that she had a mission, that a duty lay upon her, and that she was bound to deliver this mission and to perform this duty. She was the first woman ever to mount a public platform... And she was forever calling for the mention of the many merits and the overlooking of faults; for seeing the places of beauty and ignoring the lurking-places of ugliness; and for drowning the hatred in human souls with a flood of love and affection.

Can words come easily to me, when her loss has surrounded me with an emptiness whose desolate echoes keep sounding in my soul? I can do no more than describe my loss in her; I find myself only groping for her place, calling to her in secret, that I might lay upon the mother's breast in her all that I was accustomed to lay upon it of life's pains and aches, and confide to her what I meet of the world's sweetness and bitterness — a continuation of what I used to bring her, in the days of girlhood, of an artless young girl's hopes and dreams. In every stage of life, and in every turn of time, I found with her warmth and solace, help and guidance; and I found, beyond this, an enveloping tenderness that caressed the bitterest pains and stilled their burning, and lulled the recklessness of dreams, making them easy to lead and guiding them along the paths of deliberation and clear sight, even while it quickened their energy and watched over their unfolding.

I have known her since I knew life; and so it has become hard for me to persuade myself that she is vanishing from my life forever; that she has left this wide field whose open spaces she filled, and whose corners she occupied, all these years, with every kind of activity and tireless work; that she has left the platform of guidance, upon which I so often fancied she had come into this world already seated — for never did I picture her, and never did I sit with her, without seeing in her the teacher who exhorts and the guide who shows the way.

She felt intensely that she had a mission, that a duty lay upon her, and that she was bound to deliver this mission and to perform this duty, wherever she was and wherever she found herself; and she stretched out her hand to help anyone at all, wherever he might be. She was always the exhorter and the guide — on the platforms of oratory, in the circles of teaching, in the clubs of letters, on the pages of magazines, in gatherings of good company alike; even in the quiet family corner, and on the secluded bed of sickness. Her deep sense of this duty armed her with a courage by which she overrode obstacles with a dash that astonishes the beholder — she, the grave, the wise, the deliberate — and furnished her with a tact and a patience wondrous beyond words, before which the assaults of attackers fell back, humbled and retreating.

She was the first woman ever to mount a public platform, and she spoke to people in addresses whose splendor so seized them that it stripped them of every weapon they had prepared for defiance — in a country accustomed to seeing woman crouched in a corner of the house. She pressed forward to teach girls not of her own community, in the very heart of their own regions, at a time when merely to pass through those regions was counted boldness and recklessness; and it was no more than an evening and its morning before her tact had won her a high place in the hearts of the girls and of all their families. Then she entered a married life hedged about with difficulties on every side, and she had recourse to that same tact and that same patience, preparing for husband and children and the new surroundings every means of happiness and help she possessed — and what she possessed was not small — though she sacrificed for it her health, her rest, and her ease; until her children were the model of children, and her house was a gathering-place sought out by people of thought and letters and men of learning, and by the soldiers of the renaissance, women and men.

And she bent over her pen, whetting it fine and adroit, and took it for a favorite platform from which to call the daughter of her country to take her rightful place among people, and to strive for what is good for her and good for her homeland; and she kept at it until her call reached every house, and every ear heard it, and every lip and tongue passed it on. If she was able to do all this, it is because she was marked by a gathering of rare qualities that distinguished her among people, placed her in the first rank of the pioneer women, and named her the platform of counsel and guidance. She joined wisdom to courage, deliberation to daring, tact to fluency of tongue, and knowledge to soundness of mind — and, with all this, a largeness of heart, a sincerity in love, an utmost devotion in friendship, and a generosity in help that passed every limit and outran every description; and a confidence in herself that supplied her with a magic power which kept her clear of the pitfalls of failure and defeat, and furnished her with a wondrous burning brand from which her spirit took flame, lighting her own path and the paths of others, which were illumined by its guidance from the height of her enduring platform. For she was forever calling for the mention of the many merits and the overlooking of faults; for seeing the places of beauty and ignoring the lurking-places of ugliness; for drowning the hatred in human souls

with a flood of love and affection; for taking the hand of the stumbler, praising the one who succeeds, heartening the despairing, consoling the defeated, and doing justice to whoever has right on his side, however small his station. Until weakness fell upon her, and the powers of the body collapsed before it, and sickness descended upon her and ravaged the nerves; but it had no power over that shining brand of her spirit, whose light never dimmed, nor could it master the exhorter and guide within her, beneath whom no platform ever shook; and she went on counseling and guiding, giving of her spirit, of the springs of her heart, of the flood of her love, and of her abundant knowledge, never wearying of giving.

And now that the platform stands empty, and the light of the brand has gone out, it has been granted to her who bore it to stand among the builders of our modern renaissance in the ranks of the immortals, and to have her name written in the register of our history as a piece of counsel and guidance, and an outpouring of light.