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, andshaping 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.
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, andshaping 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.
A. Bronson Alcott at the Age of 53. From the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth. Page 54.A. Bronson Alcott at the Age of 53.From the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth.Page54.
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 ownmind 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.
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 ownmind 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.
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 aprotest 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 ChildrenI 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.
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.
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 wereadministered 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 temperamentwere 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 stoodon 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 hardshipsand 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 Anna1837To 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 theirlight. 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 yourFather.
For Anna1837
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 theirlight. 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 yourFather.
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 Anna1839You were once pleased, my daughter, with a little note which I wrote you on ChristmasEve, 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 samelook 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.
For Anna1839
You were once pleased, my daughter, with a little note which I wrote you on ChristmasEve, 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 samelook 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 smilesand 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, thepride and joy of angels. Thus writes your Father to you on this your birth morn.Monday, 16 March, 1840.Beach Street,BostonForAnna,in the Garden of Life.
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 smilesand 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, thepride and joy of angels. Thus writes your Father to you on this your birth morn.
Monday, 16 March, 1840.Beach Street,Boston
ForAnna,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, hewrote 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 Anna1840
beautyordutywhichloves Anna best?aQuestionfrom herfatherChristmas EveDec. 1840Concordia.
For Louisa, the father's message was this:
For Louisa1840
Louisa loves—What?(Softly)funHave some then,Fathersays.Christmas Eve, Dec. 1840Concordia.
For the baby of the household, the father's love message took poetic form:
For Abba1840For AbbaBabe 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.
For Abba1840
For AbbaBabe 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 Anna1842A Father's Giftto hisDaughteron herEleventh Birthday.Concordia16th March1842My dear daughter,This is your eleventh birthday, and as I have heretofore addressed a few wordsto 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 isthe 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. Bequickin 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 the16th March, 1843 (the good God sparing us till then) a gentler, a meeker, more determined and obligent girl.Your friendandFatherConcordia16 March1842ForAnna Bronson Alcott.
For Anna1842A Father's Giftto hisDaughteron herEleventh Birthday.Concordia16th March1842
My dear daughter,
This is your eleventh birthday, and as I have heretofore addressed a few wordsto 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 isthe 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. Bequickin 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 the16th March, 1843 (the good God sparing us till then) a gentler, a meeker, more determined and obligent girl.
Your friendandFather
Concordia16 March1842ForAnna 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-philosopherare 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.1839My 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 theytell 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 ByeFrom Father.Saturday11 o'clock in the School Room.1839
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 theytell 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 ByeFrom Father.
Saturday11 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:
Page 1 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1839
Page 2 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1839
Page 3 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1839
Page 4 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1839
For Louisa1839My 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 Obeyits soft words. How it smiles upon you, and makes you Glad when you Resolve to Obey it! How terrible itspunishments. 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 ofYour Father.Beach Street,Friday morning, Nov. 29, 1839.
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 Obeyits soft words. How it smiles upon you, and makes you Glad when you Resolve to Obey it! How terrible itspunishments. 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, Louisaat 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:
Page 1 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1840
Page 2 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1840
Page 3 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1840
Page 4 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1840
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 oftheir 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?YourFather.I forgot to write how muchKitmissed you.
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 oftheir 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?
YourFather.
I forgot to write how muchKitmissed you.
On her eighth birthday, her father writes:
For Louisa1840Two Passions strong divide our Life,Meek gentle Love, or boisterous Strife.Love—MusicAnger—ArrowConcordDiscordFrom her FatherOn her eighth birthday Nov. 29th.
For Louisa
1840
Two Passions strong divide our Life,Meek gentle Love, or boisterous Strife.Love—MusicAnger—ArrowConcordDiscordFrom her FatherOn her eighth birthday Nov. 29th.
At ten, her birthday greeting from her father is this:
For Louisa1842My 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, attable, 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 yourears, 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 veryPain of Sin, and is in theBiblecalled the worm that never dies, the gnawing worm, the sting ofconscience: 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 tohelp her to the knowledge and love of this goodSpirit. 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 yourFatherin Hope and Loveon yourBirthdayConcordia,Nov. 29, 1842.
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, attable, 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 yourears, 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 veryPain of Sin, and is in theBiblecalled the worm that never dies, the gnawing worm, the sting ofconscience: 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 tohelp her to the knowledge and love of this goodSpirit. 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 yourFatherin Hope and Loveon yourBirthday
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 fifthbirthday, her father carefully printed this letter:
Page 1 of letter for Elizabeth Alcott 1840
Page 2 of letter for Elizabeth Alcott 1840
Page 3 of letter for Elizabeth Alcott 1840
Page 4 of letter for Elizabeth Alcott 1840
For Elizabeth1840I I I I I Yearsone two three four fivebirth-dayin thecottageMy 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 hopesher 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 fromFATHER,who loves his little girl very much, and knows that she loves him very dearly.Play, play,All the day,Jump and runEvery one,Full of fun,All takeA piece of cake,For my sake.
For Elizabeth1840I I I I I Yearsone two three four fivebirth-dayin thecottage
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 hopesher 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 runEvery one,Full of fun,All takeA 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 foryou 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: andthen ask: andpatiently tillyou have triedyour best: andyou will not needto ask at all.Trying is the onlySchoolmasterwhoseScholarsalwaysSucceed.Your Father.Cottage,Feb. 2nd.
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 foryou 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: andthen ask: andpatiently tillyou have triedyour best: andyou will not needto ask at all.Trying is the onlySchoolmasterwhoseScholarsalwaysSucceed.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. AlcotttoAbby.ALittle Faceonce smilingwoketogreet, the day,with sport and play,Hands) on her Birthday, in shaking (Handswith 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, youare, the kindest, little girl, that,that, everstood d, in,(Shoes) (Shoes)
Gift of Junius S. AlcotttoAbby.
ALittle Faceonce smilingwoketogreet, the day,with sport and play,Hands) on her Birthday, in shaking (Handswith 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, youare, the kindest, little girl, that,that, everstood d, in,(Shoes) (Shoes)
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 theupbuilding 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 Fulleris coming to cure Grandmother. i shall see you in a few days. You have a splendid husbandAnnaV years of age—
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 Fulleris coming to cure Grandmother. i shall see you in a few days. You have a splendid husband
AnnaV 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 contentedand happy I hope. I must go to my sums now, so goodbye dearest motherYour loving Anna
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 contentedand 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:
ForDearest motherfruitlands.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. Ihave 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 lovingAnna.
For
Dearest motherfruitlands.
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. Ihave 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 idolatrousaffection. 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.
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.
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 littlenote tucked carefully away in a spot where only she would find and read it: