To find a sorrow that had fleeted hence
Afore my coming and found it not?
Ah, me, the emptiness!
And what! should joys that but a prick
Of gladness dealt, and teased my hours
To happiness, be lost amid this promised bliss?
Nay, I clutch me to my heart
In fear, in truth!
Do harken Ye! And cast afearing
To the wiles of beating gales and wooing breeze.
I find me throat aswell and voice attuned.
Ah, let me then to sing, for joy consumeth me!
I’ve builded me a land, my mart,
And fear hath slipped away to leave me sing.
I sleep, and feel afloating.
Whither! Whither! To wake,—
And wonder warmeth at my heart,
I’ve waked in yester-year!
What! Ye? And what! I’st thou?
Ah, have I then slept, to dream? Come,
Ne’er a dream-wraith looked me such a welcoming!
’Twas yesterday this hand wert then afold,
And now,—ah, do I dream?
’Tis warm-pressed within mine own!
Dreams! Dreams! And yet, we’ve met afore!
I see me flitting thro’ this vale,
And tho’ I strive to spell
The mountain’s height and valley’s depth,
I do but fall afail.
Wouldst thou then drink a potion
Were I to offer thee an empty cup?
Couldst thou to pluck the rainbow from the sky?
As well, then, might I spell to thee.
But I do promise at the waking,
Old joys, and sorrows ripened to a mellow heart.
And e’en the crime-stained wretch, abasked in light,
Shall cast his seed and spring afruit!
Then do I cease to clutch the emptiness
And sleep, and sleep me unafeared!
What is it that affrights, she asks, when we think of death? It is the
emptiness, she answers, the utter lack of knowledge of what lies beyond.
And if we waken to “joys we ne’er have supped”—using the word sup in the
sense of to taste or to know—what is there to attract us in the
prospect? It is an illustration she presents of our attitude toward
promises of joys with which we are unfamiliar; and which therefore do
not greatly interest us—the child who casts aside a well beloved toy
“for bauble that but caught the eye and left the heart ahungered.” Shall
the joys, she makes us exclaim, which we have known here but barely
tasted in this fleeting life, “be lost amid this promised bliss!” and
shall we “search in vain to find a sorrow that had fleeted hence before
our coming?”—meaning, apparently, shall we look there in vain for a
loved one who has gone before? She answers these questions of the heart.
Personality persists beyond the grave, she gives us plainly to
understand. We take with us all of ourselves but the material elements.
“Thou art ye,” she has said, “and I be me and ye be ye, aye, ever so.”
The transition is but a change from the material to the spiritual. We
“wake in yesteryear,” she says,—amid the friends and associations of the
past; and the joys of that life, one must infer, are the spiritual joys
of this one, the joy that comes from love, from good deeds, from work
accomplished. For it is quite evident that she would have us believe
that there is a continuous advancement in that other life.
And e’en the crime-stained wretch, abasked in light,
Shall cast his seed and spring afruit.
This can mean nothing else than that the hardened sinner, amid supernal
influences, shall develop into something higher, and as no one can be
supposed to be perfect when leaving earth, it follows that progress is
common to all. Progress implies effort, and this indicates that there
will be something for everyone to do—a view quite different from the
monotony of eternal idleness.
But this I promise at the waking,
Old joys, and sorrows ripened to a mellow heart.
To those who would peer into the other land these are perhaps the most
important lines she has given. But what does she mean by “sorrows
ripened to a mellow heart?” She was asked to make that plainer and she
said:
“That that hath flitted hence be sorrows of earth, and ahere be ripened
and thine. Love alost be sorrow of earth and dwell ahere.”
She thus makes these lines an answer to the question put before:
What! Should I search in vain
To find a sorrow that had fleeted hence
Afore my coming and found it not?
These are the sorrows that are “ripened to a mellow heart,” and she was
asked if there were new sorrows to be borne in that other life. She
replied:
“Nay. Earth be a home of sorrow’s dream. For sorrow be but dream of
the soul asleep. ’Tis wake (death) that setteth free.”
And after such assurance comes the cry of faith and content and peace:
Then do I cease to clutch the emptiness,
And sleep, and sleep me unafeared!
With this comforting assurance in mind one may cheerfully approach her
solemn address to Death:
Who art thou,
Who tracketh ’pon the path o’ me—
O’ each turn, aye, and track?
Thou! And thou astand!
And o’er thy face a cloud,
Aye, a darked and somber cloud!
Who art thou,
Thou tracker ’mid the day’s bright,
And ’mid the night’s deep;
E’en when I be astopped o’ track?
Who art thou,
That toucheth o’ the flesh o’ me,
And sendeth chill unto the heart o’ me?
Aye, and who art thou,
Who putteth forth thy hand
And setteth at alow the hopes o’ me?
Aye, who art thou,
Who bideth ever ’mid a dream?
Aye, and that the soul o’ me
Doth shrink at know?
Who art thou? Who art thou,
Who steppeth ever to my day,
And blotteth o’ the sun away?
Who art thou,
Who stepped to Earth at birth o’ me,
And e’en ’mid wail o’ weak,
Aye, at the birth o’ wail,
Did set a chill ’pon infant flesh;
And at the track o’ man ’pon Earth
Doth follow ever, and at height afollow,
And doth touch,
And all doth crumble to a naught.
Thou! Thou! Who art thou?
Ever do I to ask, and ever wish
To see the face o’ thee,
And ne’er, ne’er do I to know thee—
Thou, the Traveler ’pon the path o’ me.
And, Brother, thou dost give
That which world doth hold
From see o’ me!
Stand thou! Stand thou!
And draw thy cloak from o’er thy face!
Ever hath the dread o’ thee
Clutched at the heart o’ me.
Aye, and at the end o’ journey,
I beseech thee,
Cast thy cloak and show thee me!
Aye, show thee me!
Ah, thou art the gift o’ Him!
The Key to There! The Love o’ Earth!
Aye, and Hate hath made o’ man
To know thee not—
Thou! Thou! O Death!
She finds Death terrible from the human point of view, and reveals him
at the end as “the gift of Him, the Key to There!”
One of her constant objects seems to be to rob death of its terrors, and
to bring the “There” into closer and more intimate connection with us.
Here is another effort:
Spring’s morn afulled o’ merry-song,
Aye, and tickle o’ streams-thread through Summer’s noon;
Arock o’ hum o’ hearts-throb,
And danced awhite the air at scorch;
Winter’s rage asing o’ cold
And wail o’ Winter’s sorry at the Summer’s leave;
Ashivered breeze, abear o’ leaf’s rustling
At dry o’ season’s ripe;
Night’s deep, where sound astarteth silence;
Morn’s sweet, awooed by bird’s coax.
Earth’s sounds, ye deem?
I tell thee ’tis but the echoing o’ Here.
Thy days be naught
Save coax o’ Here athere!
All that is worth while on earth is but the echoes of Heaven, and there
would be nothing to life but for the joys that have been “coaxed” from
there. How closely that thought unites the here and the there. Earth
sounds but the echoes of the other land adjoining! She makes it
something tangible, something almost material, something we may nearly
comprehend; and then, having opened the door a little way, as far, no
doubt, as it is possible for her to do, she presents this response to
human desires, this promise of joys to come:
Swift as light-flash o’ storm, swift, swift,
Would I send the wish o’ thine asearch.
Swift, swift as bruise o’ swallows’ wing ’pon air,
I’d send asearch thy wish, areach to lands unseen;
I’d send aback o’ answer laden.
Swift, swift, would I to flee unto the Naught
Thou knowest as the Here.
Swift, swift I’d bear aback to thee
What thou wouldst seek. Swift, swift,
Would I to bear aback to thee.
Dost deem the path ahid doth lead to naught?
Dost deem thy footfall leadest thee to nothingness?
Dost pin not ’pon His word o’ promising,
And art at sorry and afear to follow Him?
I’d put athin thy cup a sweet, a pledge o’ love’s-buy.
I’d send aback a glad-song o’ this land.
Sing thou, sing on, though thou art ne’er aheard—
Like love awaked, the joy o’ breath
Anew born o’ His loving.
Set thee at rest, and trod the path unfearing.
For He who putteth joy to earth, aplanted joy
Athin the reach o’ thee, e’en through
The dark o’ path at end o’ journey.
His smile! His word! His loving!
Put forth thy hand at glad, and I do promise thee
That Joy o’ earth asupped shall fall as naught,
And thou shalt sup thee deep o’ joys,
O’ Bearer, aye, and Source; and like glad light o’ day
And sweet o’ love, thy coming here shall be!
With this promise, this covenant, we bring the narrative of Patience to
an end. There will be many and widely varied views of the nature of this
intelligence, but surely there can be but one opinion of the beauty of
her words and the purity of her purpose. She has brought a message of
love at a time when the world is sadly deficient in that attribute,
wisely believed to be the best thing in earth or heaven; and an
inspiration to faith that was never so greatly in need of strength as
now. An inevitable consequence of the world-war will be a universal
introspection. There will be a great turning of thought to serious
things. That tendency is already discernible. May it not be possible
that it is the mission of Patience Worth to answer the question that is
above all questions at a time when humanity is filled with
interrogation?
FINIS.
INDEX
Affection, 46
Allegory, on faith (verse), 255-266
Anatomist. _See_ Teacher of anatomy
Anglo-Saxon, 104
Anne, 145, 146
Ape, 112, 117
Aphorisms, 19
Attunement, 203
Autumn (verse), 82, 83, 84
B., Mrs., 182
Babe, parable of a, 168
Bartman, parable of a, 165
Basketmaker, parable of the, 167
Beppo, 112
Birth of a Song (verse), 86, 87
Blank verse, 21, 64, 107
Book learning, 251
Books, 60
Botanist. _See_ Teacher of botany
Brew, 185
“Builder of dreams” (verse), 85, 86
Burke, 89
Capital punishment, 217
Carrington, W. T., quoted, 6
Charlie, Prince, 145, 146
Childhood, tone of, 51
Christ, 122
Attitude toward, 244
Christmas (verse), 99
Christmas story, 122, 123-141
Cloak, parable of the, 171
Cockshut, 57
Communications, character, 32, 202, 203
Genuineness, 33, 39, 41
Intellectual character 9, 11
Method, 187
Compliments, 49
Composition, method, 66, 67, 80, 164, 185
Conversations, character, 173, 174
Substance in her words, 211
Cup, 224, 225
Curran, John H., 53, 178, 199
Curran, Mrs. John H., 3, 4, 14, 31, 41, 45, 46, 182, 187, 188, 189,
201, 205
Education, 34
Sittings, 35, 36
D., Dr. and Mrs., 207-212
Day, pæan to the (verse), 84
Death, fear of, 196
Fear of (verse), 267-269
Life following, 79
robbed of terrors, 281
Solemn address to (verse), 279-281
Devotional verse, 97
Divinity of the human, 245
Doubt (verse), 265
Dougal, 145, 146
Drama, 109
Six-act medieval play described, 142
Dress, references to, 52, 56, 192
Dreams. _See_ “Builder of dreams”
_See_ Phantom _also_
Dreamer (verse), 72, 73
Earth questions, reasoning upon, 217
Eastern morn, 144, 145
England, 15, 33, 149
Northern, 60
Epigrams. _See_ Aphorisms
Ermaline, Princess, 145, 146
Failures in life, 227
Fairy’s wand, parable of, 168
Faith, allegory on (verse), 255-266
Triumph of (verse), 253-266
Femininity, 42, 52
Flesh. _See_ Soul
Folly, 221, 222
Fool, 112
Fool and the Lady, The (story), 109, 111-121
Franco, 151
Friendship (verse), 96
Fun-loving spirit, 53
Future. _See_ Immortality
G., Miss, 207
G., Mr., 208
G., Mrs., 207
God, 226
Identity with, 242
Love for (verse), 237-239
Song of, 193
“Hands” (verse), 233
Harp (verse), 86, 87
Herbs, story of the, 212-215
Holmes, John Haynes, quoted, 10
Hours of day (verse), 215
Housekeeping, 42
Humor, 31
in verse, 74, 75, 76
Hutchings, Mr., 53
Hutchings, Mrs. Emily Grant, 4, 44, 188
Imagery, 72, 78
Immortality, growth, 277
Mystery, 249, 250
Nature, 272
Reality, 247
Recognition of friends, 270, 276
Impatience, 45, 46
Individuality, 41
Infancy, 92, 94
Inn of Falcon Feather, 111
J., Miss, 189, 192, 193
James, Wm., 199, 200
Jana, 127
Jane-o’-apes, 58, 131
John the Peaceful, 122, 123, 132
Joy, promise of future, 283-284
K., Dr., 195, 199
King of Wisdom, 221
Kirtle, 55, 56
Language, 13, 56, 104, 149, 150, 153, 164, 189
Laughter, 168
Leaf, fallen (verse), 82
Leta, 124
Life for a life, 218
Life likened to the seasons (verse), 252
Lisa, 109, 112
Literature, 223, 224
Love, childhood, 51
Divine (verse), 235, 236
for Christ, 244
for the loveless (verse), 226
for the wearied (verse), 227
Friendly, 96
God’s (verse), 97
Man and woman (verse), 94
maternal, 92, 94
Religious, 226
Song, “Drink ye unto me,” 180
to God (verse), 237-239
Universal, 234
“Loves of yester’s day” (verse), 88
Lullaby, 64, example, 68
Spinning Wheel, 69
M., Mr. and Mrs., 207-210
Marion, 153
Mary, the Virgin, 245
Marye, Lady, 122, 123
Massinger, 58
Maxims. _See_ Aphorisms
Men, attitude toward, 49
Men and women, 94
Merchants, parable of, 166
Message, 224
Metaphor, borrowed, 78, 79
Metaphysics, 29
Mise-man song, 179
Mission, 284
Mite and the Seeds, tale of the, 176-178
Musician, 208
Nature, Love of, 25, 79
Value of, 251
Neurologist, 204
New England, 15, 33
New Year (verse), 101
Newspaper article, 215
Newspaper writer, 189
Ouija board, 1, 5, 65, 187
P., Dr., 204-207
Parables, 165
Story of the herbs, 212-215
Personality, 59
Pettieskirt, 52, 54, 56, 154, 186, 205
Phantom and the Dreamer, The (verse), 255-266
Physicians, 204
Physician, conversation with a young, 16
Description, 50
Poetry. _See_ Songs; Verse
Pollard, Mrs. Mary E., 5, 43, 44
Prayers, Character, 239, 243
Examples (verse), 239-244
“Primrose path,” 77, 78
Prose, 107
Psychic communications. _See_ Communications
Puritan, 55, 59, 69, 192
“Put,” 186-189
R., Dr., 204-207
Records of communications, character, 3
Regal, 123
Religion, 223, 226
Revelation, 225, 226
Rhyme, 21, 64
Rhythm, 107
Sarcasm, 49
Scottish, 60
Seed, 224, 225
Seeds. _See_ Mite and the Seeds
Self, 221, 222
Shakespeare, 57, 77, 104
Shelley, 90, 105
Simplicity, 104, 105
Sittings, character, 18, 35
Skylark (verse), 89
Society for Psychical Research, 223
Song, birth of a (verse), 86, 87
Songs, 173
“Do I love the morn?” 215
“Drink ye unto me,” 180
“Gone, gone,” 198
“How have I sought!” 203
“Loth as Night,” 211
Mise-man, 179
To Miss J., 193
To Mr. G., a musician, 208
Sorrow, comfort for, 231
“Sorrows ripened to a mellow heart,” 275, 278
Soul, 190
Body and, 218
Spelling, 66
Spinning, 206
Spinning Wheel (verse), 69
Spinster, 49, 69
Spirituality, 24, 152
Spring (verse), 81
Stories, 108
Character, 185
Dramatic character, 109
Story of Telka, described, 149
“Story of the Judge Bush,” 153-163
Stranger, The (story), 108, 122, 123-141
Subconsciousness, 34, 35
Teacher of anatomy, 182, 190
Teacher of botany, 183
Telka, 149, 150
Theater, 53
Throb, 202
Timon, 124
Tina, 124
Tonio, 113
Tournament, 114
Tricksters, 208
Triviality, 10
Truth, 182
V., Dr., 195-201
Verse, 21
Dictation, manner, 65
Range, 63
Technique, 65, 81
Virgin Mary, 245
W., Dr., 176, 178
W., Mrs., 176, 178, 182
War, 284
War (verse), 91
“Waste of earth” (verse), 228-231
Wasted words, 243
Wearied ones, 227
“Weaving,” 175
Widow, visitor at the Currans, 217, 218
Wind (verse), 75
Winter (verse), 79, 80
Wisdom, 222
Wit, 18, 19
Worth, Patience, advent, 2;
affection, 46;
appearance, 207;
book learning, 60;
date, 37, 197;
elusiveness, 60;
femininity, 42, 52;
fun-loving spirit, 53;
impatience, 45, 46;
individuality, 41;
laughter, love of, 168;
love her inspiration, 234;
men, attitude toward, 49;
message, 224;
mission, 284, 285;
obscurity, 199;
on being investigated, 196;
personality, 12, 59, 220, 224;
phrases, striking, 40;
place, 38;
revelation, 226;
sarcasm, 49;
speech, 39, 56, 104, 149, 150, 153, 164, 189;
spinster, 49, 69;
substance in her words, 211
X., Dr., 182-195, 204
X., Mrs., 182, 183
Z., Dr., 187-189
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcriber's Notes
Generally, older or dialectual spellings were left unchanged.
A couple of obviously needed typographical changes were made.
In addition:
On page 231 "thornéd" was changed to "thornèd"
In the Index page "365" for 'Doubt' was changed to page "265".