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first thing in the morning.
In fifteen minutes . . . I entirely planned two addresses on distinct subjects —the birthday address at Concord on Emerson and the address for the blind . . . . For all this—but chiefly for my wife, child and home, let me give thanks . . . . Whenever I think of illness or death, then it seems beautiful to have one child on earth and one in heaven.
In 1882, he began the chapters of his ‘Larger History of the
United States,’ which were published in ‘
Harper's Magazine’; of these he told his sister, August 24, 1883, ‘I have written one of my
Harper's papers regularly every month for the last eleven months; besides other things too much for anybody.’
It was a rare thing for him to admit that he worked beyond his strength, but such was often the case.
In the autumn of this year,
Colonel Higginson wrote to his sister:—
I invited Matthew Arnold to spend a few days with us, but he is not coming, being engaged to Phillips Brooks.
And later:—
This morning I spent in taking Matthew Arnold to schools in Boston . . . . He is very cordial and appreciative, not in the least cynical, or patronizing.
In the poem called ‘Sixty and Six,’
Colonel Higginson describes the joy he found in the ‘blithe littie, ’
