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The Life of Alice Freeman Palmer

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The Life of Alice Freeman Palmer liiililiiltiii jii m\ m LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN IN MEMORY OF STEWART S. HOWE JOURNALISM CLASS OF 1928 STEWART S. HOWE FOUNDATION l^oo ^p 0tovst ^. IJalmcr THE ENGLISH POEMS OF GEORGE HERBERT. With trontispiece. Edited by George H. Palmer. INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY IN THE SON- NETS OF SHAKSPERE. htgersoU Lecture. THE PROBLEM OF FREEDOM. THE TEACHER AND OTHER ESSAYS AND AD- DRESSES ON EDUCATION. By George H. Palmer and Alice Freeman Palmer. THE LIFE OF ALICE FREEMAN PALMER. With Portraits and Views. New Edition. THE ENGLISH WORKS OF GEORGE HERBERT. Newly arranged and annotated, and considered in rela- tion to his life, by G. H. Palmer. Second Edition. In 3 volumes. Illustrated. THE NATURE OF GOODNESS. THE FIELD OF ETHICS. THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER. Books I-XII. The Text and an English Prose Version. THE ODYSSEY. Complete. An Engl';sh Translation in Prose. THE ANTIGONE OF SOPHOCLES. Translated into English. With an Introduction. A SERVICE IN MEMORY OF ALICE FREEMAN PALMER. Edited by George H. Palmer. With .Ad- dresses by James B. Angell, Caroline Hazard, W. J. Tucker, and Charles W. Eliot. With Portraits. FORMATIVE TYPES IN ENGLISH POETRY. A MARRIAGE CYCLE. By Alice Freeman Palmer. Edited by George H. Palmer. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Boston and New York ALICE free:\l\n palmer Portrait in 1892 THE LIFE OF ALICE FREEMAN PALMER BY GEORGE HERBERT PALMER BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY COPYRIGHT 1908 BY GEORGE HERBERT PALMER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published April iqoS FORTIETH THOUSAND 6 CONTENTS I. Introduction , . 1 il. Childhood 17 III. Girlhood 31 IV. The University 44 V. School-Teaching 72 VI. Teaching at Wellesley ...... 90 VII. The Wellesley Presidency 118 VIII. The Wellesley Presidency (Continued) . 135 IX. Marriage 168 X. Sabbatical Years 189 XI. Cambridge , . 220 XII. Cambridge (Continued) 243 XIII. BoxFORD 277 XrV. Death 311 XV. Character 328 D.\TES c . o 353 ILLUSTRATIONS Alice Freeman Palmer Frontispiece Portrait at five years 26 The Susquehanna Valley 32 Michigan University 44 Wellesley College 90 Academic Portrait 134 The Wellesley College Memorial 166 Cambridge House 220 Cambridge Library 242 BoxFORD House 282 Last Portrait 328 : ALICE FREEMAN PALMER When fell, to-day, the word that she had gone, Not this my thought: Here a bright journey ends, Here rests a soul unresting; here, at last. Here ends that earnest strength, that generous life — For all her life was giving. Rather this I said (after the first swift, sorrowing pang) Radiant with love, and love's unending power. Hence, on a new quest, starts an eager spirit — No dread, no doubt, unhesitating forth With asking eyes; pure as the bodiless souls Whom poets vision near the central throne Angelically ministrant to man; So fares she forth with smiling, Godward face; Nor should we grieve, but give eternal thanks — Save that we mortal are, and needs must mourn. Richard Watson Gilder. December 0, 1902. THE LIFE OF ALICE FREEMAN PALMER I INTRODUCTION Three reasons impel me to write this book, affec- tion first of all. Mrs. Palmer was my wife, deeply beloved and honored. Whatever perpetuates that honor brings me peace. To leave the dead wholly dead is rude. Vivid creature that she was, she must not lie forgotten. Something of her may surely be saved if only I have skill. Perhaps my grateful pen may bring to others a portion of the bounty I my- self received. A second and more obvious summons comes from the fact that in herself and apart from me Mrs. Palmer was a notable person. Somebody therefore may be tempted to write her life if I do not ; for her friends were numbered by the ten thousand. At her death I received nearly two thousand letters from statesmen, schoolgirls, clerks, lawyers, teachers, country wives, outcasts, millionaires, ministers, men 2 ALICE FREEMAN PALMER of letters, — a heterogeneous and to me largely an unknown company, but alike in feeling the marvel of her personality and the loss her death had caused them. Few women of her time, I have come to think, were more widely loved. And now these persons are recalling her influence and asking for explanation. Where lay that strange power, and how did she obtain it? She lived no longer than most of us. She had no early advantage of birth, physical vigor, or station. Half her years were passed in com- parative poverty. During only nine did she hold positions which could be called conspicuous. She wrote little. In no field of scholarship was she emi- nent. Her tastes were domestic, her voice gentle, her disposition feminine and self-effacing. Yet by personal power rather than by favoring circumstance this woman sent out an influence from the Atlantic to the Pacific, an influence unique in kind and puz- zling those on whom it fell. In her appearance there was nothing enigmatic. Altogether simple she seemed, approachable, plaj^ul even, interested in common things, in common people, with no air of profundity, and small inclination to remake after her own pat- tern the characters of those who came near ; but any one on whom she turned her great eyes went out from her presence renewed. Hope revived, one's special powers were heightened ; the wise, the exalted course became suddenly easy; while toil and diffi- INTRODUCTION 3 culties began to spice the life they had previously soured. In all this there was something mysterious which I am solicited to explain. I cannot explain it. Probably genius is never explicable. The more nearly it is examined, the more intricately marvelous it appears. Fifteen years of closest companionship with Mrs. Palmer did not dis- close to me the pulse of that curious machine. She always remained a surprise. Yet I never tired of studying her; for though we seldom can fully com- prehend a person, in studying one who is great we can push analysis farther than elsewhere and with larger entertainment and profit ; we discover a multi- tude of ingredients unsuspected at first; and, most interesting of all, we come upon strange modes of turning trivial things to power and of gaily discard- ing what men usually count important. And even when at last we arrive at what defies analysis, being the very individuality itself, its beautiful mystery still lures us on and — like Keats's Grecian Urn — en- largingly "teases us out of thought." Accordingly, in response to many requests, I mean to make the second object of this book the study of an attractive human problem, even though by doing so I prove to how limited an extent the demand for an understanding can be gratified. I certainly shall never succeed in accounting for Mrs. Palmer's charm ; I fear I shall not even reproduce it. In her 4 ALICE FREEMAN PAEMER lifetime many artists tried to depict that haunting and variable face, hut without success. The sun itself gave only partial and contradictory reports. So I must fail in setting forth so elusive a being. But this failure will restrain less familiar hands; and I can at least set in order the chief facts of her life and select characteristic specimens of her sayings and writings. And if so much is accomplished, perhaps I may accomplish something more. In life Mrs. Palmer's personality was an influential one. It embodied stimulating ideals. Those who approached her, even casually, gained power and peace. President Tucker says, "There is no other of our generation, with the possible exception of Phillips Brooks, who has stood to such a degree for those qualities in which we must all believe with unquenchable faith if we are to do anything in this world." And President Eliot, "To my mind this career is unmatched by that of any other American woman. Mrs. Palmer's life and labors are the best example thus far set before American womanhood." If my portrait of her, then, is correct, invigoration will go forth from it and dis- heartened souls be cheered; for after all, her modes of life — with suitable adaptation to alien tempera- ments — are capable of pretty wide application. What was peculiar in her was small. She chiefly distinguished herself by wise ways of confronting — INTRODUCTION 5 the usual world. While, then, I try to restore her to life for the benefit of those who did and did not know her, I may hope that readers will find in the disclos- ure of her methods material for their own strength and courage. One more aim remains, weighty, yet lying on the surface. In some of the social movements of her time Mrs. Palmer had a considerable share. During her life education was undergoing reconstruction, new colleges were coming into existence, fresh op- portunities and capacities for women were being claimed and tested. It is well to follow such move- ments in the lives of their leaders and to understand the situation in which those leaders found them* selves. By sharing in their early hopes, difficulties, and results, we comprehend better the world we in- habit. As Mrs. Palmer was sometimes forced into such leadership, she may be said to have a certain historical importance. Such, then, are the three impulses ''f this book, the insatiability of love, the general desire for por- traiture, the rights of history. Here personal, psy- chological, social motives mingle. Since I can no longer talk with her, I would talk of her and get the comfort of believing that even now without me she may not be altogether perfect. Enjoying, too, artis- tic criticism, psychology, ethical problems, I gladly bring my special knowledge to bear on what many 6 ALICE FREEMAN PALMER found mysterious, pleasing myself with thinking that in making her known to old friends and new I shall also make them better known to themselves.
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