“Memory
will sometimes cast a shade
Of
sadness o’er the brightest day;
And
gloom is sometimes gloomier made,
When
from the past there comes no ray
To
pierce the deep obscure, and throw
A
tint of lustre over woe:
And
yet her darker scenes possess
Sometimes
a passing loveliness.
Thus
oft doth evenings yellow light
Gleam
through the clouds more mildly bright
Than
when the glorious day declining
Through
pure unsullied azure shining,
Diffuses
radiance o’er the skies,
And
in its own effulgence, dies.”
Perfect
happiness is not the growth of a terrestrial soil;
It
buds in the gardens of the virtuous on earth,
But
blooms with unfading verdure only in the celestial regions.
A A
Raymond
[two
cuts in the middle of the page to hold a sprig, now gone]
Plucked
from the grave
September 6th 1873
“Oh!
ask not, hope thou not too much
Of
sympathy below:
Few
are the hearts whence one same touch
Bid
the sweet fountains flow;
Few
and by still conflicting powers,
Forbidden
here to meet
Such
ties would make this life of ours
Too
fair for ought so fleet.”
New
London Mattarosa
26th
Feb’y, 1830
[above:
first stanza of ‘Kindred Hearts’, by Felicia Hemans]
Benevolence
The
love of benevolence is a principle that activates the hearts of pious saints,
prepares us for the most refined pleasures here, and for the more exalted
fruition of the celestial world.
It
fits us to be companions of angels and the just made perfect,
And
as it reflects the saints of God will be a growing principle through eternity.
A.
Alden----
[left
page, ie later addition]
“There
are some moments in this lone and desolate world of ours, that well repay the
toil of struggling through it,
And
atone for many a long sad night—and weary day.
They
come upon the mind like some wild air of distant music,
When
we know not where, or whence the sounds are brought from their power, though
brief, is boundless.” ----
Mary
Emily Turner [in pencil]