THE ALCOTT CHILDREN
FOR some months after their marriage the Alcotts lived in Boston, where
the young enthusiast taught a school for infants. Again his fame as a
teacher traveled, and he received an offer from the Quakers of
Philadelphia to start a school there, an offer so tempting that the
Alcotts moved to Germantown, Pennsylvania, where Anna and Louisa were
born.
Eugenics and prenatal influence were not discussed then as they are
to-day, but in the Alcott family nearly a century ago they were being
thought and lived. Bronson Alcott and his wife considered children an
expression, not of themselves, but of divinity, and as such to be
accepted as a trust, rather than as a gratification of their own human
longing for fatherhood and motherhood. They felt it their parental
privilege rather than their duty to aid the human development of the
child and thus further the fulfillment of its destiny. Each little soul
was humbly asked for and reverently prepared for. From the moment they
knew their prayer had been granted, the individuality and rights of that
soul were respected. It was considered as a little guest that must be
made happy and comfortable, carefully cherished, mentally and
physically, while its fleshly garment was being prepared and the little
personality made ready for its earthly appearance. How careful they were
of every thought and influence, for to both parents this period was the
most sacred and wonderful in their lives and in the lives of their
children.
The depth of his joy and the simplicity of his faith are exquisitely
expressed in the lines which Bronson Alcott wrote before the birth of
his first child, Anna:
TO AN EXPECTANT MOTHER
The long advancing hour draws nigh--the hour
When life's young pulse begins its mystic play,
And deep affection's dreams of Form or Joy
Shall be unveiled, a bodily presence
To thy yearning heart and fond maternal eye,
The primal Soul, a semblance of thine own,
Its high abode shall leave and dwell in day,
Thyself its forming Parent. A miracle, indeed,
Shall nature work. Thou shalt become
The bearing mother of an Infant Soul--
Its guardian spirit to its home above.
But yet erewhile the lagging moments come
That layeth the living, conscious, burden down,
Firm faith may rest in hope. Accordant toils
Shall leave no time for fear, nor doubt, nor gloom.
Love, peace, and virtue, are all born of Pain,
And He who rules o'er these is ever good.
The joyous promise is to her who trusts,
Who trusting, gains the vital boon she asks,
And meekly asking, learns to trust aright.
Louisa, the second child, born on her father's birthday, was the most
intellectual and the most resourceful of the Alcott children, reflecting
in her own buoyant personality the happy conditions existing before and
at the time of her birth, when her father had attained his greatest
material prosperity and was also realizing his mental ambitions in his
little school, and her mother was temporarily relieved from the cares
that so often weighed heavily upon her.
Shortly before the birth of Elizabeth the father makes this entry in his
journal:
THE ADVENT COMETH
Daily am I in expectation of beholding with the eye of sense,
the spirit that now lingers on the threshold of this terrestrial
life, and only awaits the bidding of the Reaper within, to usher
itself into the presence of mortals. It standeth at the door and
waiteth for admission to the exterior scene of things.... Let
the time come. Two little ones in advance await its coming; and
greetings of joy shall herald its approach.
The birth of Elizabeth is followed by this entry in his journal:
At sunset this day a daughter was born to us.
One of the most trying of the Alcott family's experiences came after the
birth of Elizabeth, when Bronson Alcott, again in Boston, aroused a
storm of protest with his radical teachings and his advanced
interpretations of the Bible. Shocked that the city where he expected to
find sympathy and encouragement should have repudiated him, his school
disrupted and abject poverty his lot, broken mentally and physically, he
met with another cruel disappointment in the death of his infant son.
Yet even then there was no word of bitterness, and no mention is made in
his journal of the father's grief. Indirectly it is expressed in a
subsequent entry announcing the birth of the fourth daughter, Abba May.
She was born under sunny skies. The storm had passed, and the Alcott
family had removed to Concord, where they enjoyed many of their happiest
years. A presage of May Alcott's artistic gifts, her queenly bearing,
elegance, and charm, all familiar to readers of "Little Women," is found
in this entry in the father's journal:
July, 1840.
A new life has arrived to us (July 26th). She was born with the
dawn, and is a proud little Queen, not deigning to give us the
light of her royal presence, but persists in sleeping all the
time, without notice of the broad world or ourselves.
Providence, it seems, decrees that we shall provide selectest
ministries alone, and so sends us successive daughters of Love
to quicken the Sons of Life. We joyfully acquiesce in the Divine
behest and are content to rear women for the future world. As
yet the ministry is unknown in the culture of the nations, but
the hour draws near when love shall be felt as a chosen Bride of
Wisdom, and the celestial pair preside over all the household of
mankind.
Bronson Alcott did not feel his responsibility as a father alone; he
appreciated his own debt to his children, the mental and spiritual help
that came to him through them, an appreciation that found expression in
this poem, entered in his journal before the birth of Elizabeth:
June, 1835
INVOCATION TO A CHILD
She comes from Heaven, she dawns upon my sight,
O'er earth's dark scenes to pour her holy light!
In sense and blest the Infinite to see
And feel the heavenly mystery--_To Be._
She comes--in Nature's tenderest, fondest name--
Daughter of God--'tis she--the same--the same
Mine is she too--my own--my latest child,
Myself, wrapt in Divinity, yet unbeguiled!
Blest Infant! God's and mine! yet to me given,
That I might feel anew my Being's Heaven--
In love and faith to urge my human way,
Till conscious time be lost in Immortality!
Love thee I will; for thou didst first love me--
My faith shall quicken as I dwell on thee,
Thy Spirit lift me from this "Grave of Things,"
And bear me homeward, to the King of Kings.