When Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody referred to a local person as “our High Priest of Nature,” it was not Henry Thoreau to whom she was referring, but Jones Very. It is true that the term “Nature” was at that time, as it is now, associated with going on an excursion in the country (despite the fact that such an excursion was then termed a “pic nic” rather than a “picnic”), but primarily the term “Nature” was in use during this period as a trope for the investigation of theology without the opening of authoritative books. And it was Very, not Thoreau, who was the reigning local expert at this type of mystic spirituality. When Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody at one point suggested to Margaret Fuller that she might write for the Democratic Review. Fuller responded, in a letter: “Are they good pay (for I have heard the contrary) - ? Will they pay me unasked? or torture all my lady like feelings...?” “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody HDT WHAT? INDEX MISS ELIZABETH PEABODY ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY 1804 May 16, Wednesday: Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was born to the dentist Nathanael Peabody and the Unitarian Elizabeth Palmer Peabody in Billerica, Massachusetts.1 She would attend the 2d (soon to be Unitarian) Church in Salem, Massachusetts. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody 1. Elder to Mary and Sophia, the other two of “the Peabody sisters,” she would grow up to become someone the 19th Century treated with amused tolerance, in part because she was an intelligent woman, in part because she became obese: her bookstore would be at 13 West Street in Boston and she would be the publisher of the journal of the Transcendentalists, THE DIAL. HDT WHAT? INDEX ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY MISS ELIZABETH PEABODY 1807 November 16, Monday: Mary Tyler Peabody (Mann) was born to the dentist Nathanael Peabody and the Unitarian Elizabeth Palmer Peabody in Billerica, Massachusetts. She would attend the 2d (soon to be Unitarian) Church in Salem, Massachusetts. A British fleet arrived at the mouth of the River Tejo, Portugal. Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 16th of 11 M 1807 / This evenings Mail has confirmed the melancholy report of my dear Brother David’s decease. He departed this life the 22nd of 10th M last About 9 OClock in the evening at Savannah in Georgia after twelve days illness of a fever, the particulars of his sickness we have not yet learnt whether he was favord with his reason to the last, or reconciled to the Solemn final change, we wish very much to hear but as he was so far from us & no particular friend & acquaintance near, it is most likely we Shall not very soon if ever learn how it was with him - The circumstance of his change at so great a distance from us is a very close tryal, & since the news reached us I have had to take an home view of death. The agonies attendant at that Awful moment must be very great. Oh that when the pale messenger may assail my tabernacle, I may be in readiness to go with him — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS NO-ONE’S LIFE IS EVER NOT DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HAPPENSTANCE “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody HDT WHAT? INDEX MISS ELIZABETH PEABODY ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY 1809 September 21, Thursday: In England, the Perceval ministry began as British Foreign Minister George Canning and Secretary for War Lord Castlereagh engaged in a duel on Putney Heath. Canning was upset that Castlreagh had taken troops he had intended for Portugal and used them in the Walcheren operation. Canning was struck in the thigh. Public sentiment would turn against both the duelists. Sophia Amelia Peabody was born to the dentist Nathanael Peabody and the Unitarian Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. She would attend the 2d (soon to be Unitarian) Church in Salem, Massachusetts. She would attend a school run by her mother and by her sister Elizabeth Palmer Peabody there and upon graduation, would become a teacher in that school as well. Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 21 of 9 M 1809// At meeting Our friends D Buffum & Mary Morton were very acceptably engaged in Short testimonies - In the eveng a little while at R Taylors ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody HDT WHAT? INDEX ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY MISS ELIZABETH PEABODY 1812 Lydia Very (1794-1867), pregnant, and Captain Jones Very of the privateer Montgomery, her first cousin, set up an “irregular household” or common-law marriage in Salem MA. Here is an account of Lydia Very of 154 Federal Street, Salem MA, which Elizabeth Palmer Peabody created during the period in which people were most concerned for the mental stability of her son Jones Very: She was a person of great energy — was said to have more than doubts of another world and of the existence of God — having had a severe experience of life, and being at odds with the existing state of Society — a disciple of Fanny Wright.... FANNY WRIGHT THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody HDT WHAT? INDEX MISS ELIZABETH PEABODY ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY 1829 January: In “Account of a Visit to an Elementary School” on pages 74-76 of the American Journal of Education, IV, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody described a typical morning at Bronson Alcott’s school. THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody HDT WHAT? INDEX ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY MISS ELIZABETH PEABODY 1830 Baron Joseph-Marie de Gérando’s Institutes du droit administratif français (4 volumes, Paris). Elizabeth Palmer Peabody’s Englishing of Baron de Gérando’s Du perfectionnement moral, ou de l’éeducation de soi-méme (Paris, 1824) as SELF-EDUCATION; OR THE MEANS AND ART OF MORAL PROGRESS. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF M. LE BARON DEGERANDO (Boston: Published anonymously, in its initial edition, by Carter and Hendee). SELF-EDUCATION; OR ... This volume would be found in the personal library of Henry Thoreau and can now be viewed downstairs in Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library. Accession No. 10416: Inscribed in pencil on front free endpaper and front lining leaf: “Thoreau.” Presented by Sophia E. Thoreau, 1874. Quarter-bound in brown cloth with printed spine label, light brown paper boards. May 23, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 23rd of 5th M / Both Meetings Silent & Enoch & Lydia Absent at Cumberland. — They however were seasons of some favour for which I was thankful RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX MISS ELIZABETH PEABODY ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY Abigail May (Abba Alcott) and Amos Bronson Alcott were wed in the chapel in which Abba had been baptized in her infancy, King’s Chapel in Boston, by her brother the Unitarian minister Samuel Joseph May. Earlier in this year Elizabeth Palmer Peabody and Bronson had met: “She may perhaps aim at being ‘original’ and fail in her attempt by becoming offensively assertive. On the whole there is, we think, too much of the man and too little of the woman in her familiarity and freedom, her affected indifference of manner. Yet, after all, she is interesting.” The Peabody sisters of Salem happened by chance to be in the vicinity and stuck around for the wedding of Abba and Bronson by request in order to swell the little group into something a bit more impressive. Everything went swimmingly and almost immediately Abba would become pregnant: My husband, hallowed be the name, is all I expected, this is saying a good deal. Soon the newlyweds received an anonymous bequest of $2,000.00, it is suspected from Abba’s father. THE ALCOTT FAMILY HDT WHAT? INDEX ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY MISS ELIZABETH PEABODY HDT WHAT? INDEX MISS ELIZABETH PEABODY ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY 1832 Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody’s KEY TO HISTORY: FIRST STEPS TO STUDY OF HISTORY. KEY TO HISTORY Baron Joseph-Marie de Gérando’s “Cours normal des instituteurs primaires ou directions relatives a l'education physique, morale, et intellectuelle dans les ecoles primaires” and “De l’éducation des sourds- muets de naissance” (2 volumes, Paris). In this year the Baron de Gérando became a member of the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques. Boston’s Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins printed Baron de Gérando’s THE VISITOR OF THE POOR as translated from the French by “A Lady of Boston,” presumably Miss Peabody, with an introduction by the Reverend Joseph Tuckerman. HDT WHAT? INDEX ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY MISS ELIZABETH PEABODY Fall: Mary Tyler Peabody and Elizabeth Peabody moved to Mrs. Rebecca Clarke’s Somerset Court boardinghouse in Boston and opened a school there. (A Dedham lawyer, Horace Mann, Sr., also moved there, after the death of his first wife.) DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody HDT WHAT? INDEX MISS ELIZABETH PEABODY ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY 1833 Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody’s key to the history of the Hebrews: KEY TO HEBREW HISTORY Her key to the history of the Greeks: KEY TO GREEK HISTORY CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody HDT WHAT? INDEX ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY MISS ELIZABETH PEABODY 1834 July: Reading his musings on education and the early life of children, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody became convinced that Bronson Alcott was “like an embodiment of intellectual light,” and rounded up seven students for him to found a school upon.