PREFACE. EVERY new book must have, in the consciousness of its author, a private history that, like the mysteries of romance, would if unfolded have an interest for the reader, and by unveiling the inner life of the volume show its character and tendencies. As the preface is the proper place for explanations, it seems to me that a sketch of the origin of this book will be the most fitting testimony of my endeavors to make it worthy of approval. Long ago, when I was a little girl at school, one of the poetic selections in my reading-book stamped itself into my heart and mind as my country's photograph: it ran thus, "Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, The queen of the world, and the child of the skies! The word "splendors" struck me with awe and delight. I longed to know what these glories would be. I wondered if it would ever be possible for me to do any thing to aid in this "unfolding" of national greatness. Then came Independence Day, with the Fourth-of-July orations and their patriotic burden, all tending to prove that American citizens had the "inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." These ideas seemed grand, but not satisfying. Who gave these rights? and what could I do to obtain happiness? were questions to be answered. I did not apprehend their full scope until the deep waters of affliction had gone over my soul; from that baptism of sorrow I learned to distrust the abstract and ideal as guides in the duties of life. The value of things seems to me greatest when their right uses produce the greatest good; and thus human rights have their true interpretation when subordinated to the laws of God, which are the highest good. In this light, it seems to me that the value of all material things is in proportion to the degree in which they minister to the good of human beings; and that human nature finds its best happiness in obedience to the Divine Exemplar of all goodness. An illustration may help us to apprehend these lessons. Take a wide prairie: in its luxuriance of wild fertility it can only furnish food for buffaloes. Are not its uses immeasurably exalted when its same broad, ocean-like surface is seen in waving wheat-fields, dotted with human habitations? The beneficent changes have been wrought out by obedience to God's law of labor, that man should subdue the earth before he could become its ruler. Thus we find the reason why the man who makes two blades of wheat grow where only one grew before is a public benefactor. This power of doing good in little things is a material aid in securing the happiness of life: in short, human rights involve the duty of doing right individually. In “the pursuit of happiness," the first right step is to seek that which is good to do, not merely for one's self, but for others: ultimately we reach the public good. To illustrate this philosophy of happiness has been the study and aim of my literary life. Dr. Chalmers left on record his experience that repetition was the way of success most effectual in promoting good. I have followed this plan, as the readers of Godey's "Lady's Book" for the last thirty years will testify. "Line upon line, precept upon precept; these are the examples of Nature, and the doctrines of Revelation. Can human reason find better methods? This seemed my proper plan when I engaged to furnish a series of articles, during 1866, for a family newspaper.* My department, "The Home Circle," was to include the etiquette of social observances, and the philosophy of home happiness. Order, if not Heaven's first law, is the law through which human beings gain their most useful knowledge of Nature; and as Time, which began with the creation, is the first principle of order, I took my plan from the first week of the world's life. Reckoning each week as a day, I divided the fifty-two weeks into seven periods, or parts, of seven weeks each: the seventh number in each part was the Sunday rest. The three weeks that make up the full year are given to our three American holidays. Thus my sheaf has been garnered. Its design is to furnish the varied entertainment of mental food for home happiness which the diversity of conditions in life and of cultivation in taste require. To give this variety, gleanings have been made from the best writers on these subjects; but as no book, excepting the inspired volume of divine truth, is just to woman, the foundation principles of love and duty, the pillars of domestic peace and social improvement, have been built up from the Bible. When we study domestic life in its influence on national characteristics, it seems as if the two Anglo-Saxon Peoples were intrusted with the holy duty of keeping pure the home of woman and the altar of God. Where in all the Old World, but in England, could the family life of Sir Thomas More keep his memory glorious? or the wedded union of * "The Home Weekly,” then published in Philadelphia by Mr. George W. Childs, the well-known editor of "The Public Ledger," and "The American Literary Gazette." Lord William Russell become sacred as a holy example? and where else would the domestic virtues of a sovereign Queen and a Prince Consort have ennobled their high rank? English literature is rich in these evidences of honor to goodness in home-life. America has all needed means of making her history unparalleled in the reality of happy homes and good society throughout the Great Republic. Moreover, there are, in the texture of American life, certain threads, that, like telegraphic wires, reach across all obstacles, and awaken the sympathies of the world. These sympathies are drawn to us in our American holidays, that thus become exponents of the heart of humanity. Take, for instance, Washington's birthday. Is there not among all nations the feeling that he is the best example of a perfect hero, and that his name deserves to be honored? Independence Day, has it not ideas and deeds and results that move the heart and mind of man as no other Holiday can stir them? And our Thanksgiving Day for the mercies of God and His bounteous gifts of harvest could not every Christian nation and every Jewish family in the world join us in this Thanksgiving, on the last Thursday in November? The Anglo-Saxon peoples have another bond of unity, they represent home-life, in its highest characteristics among the nobility of England, and in its best aspects of purity and happiness in America. These characteristics and virtues of the Princely and the Popular are united in the MANNERS that form the most perfect standard for social life and home happiness. This standard it has been my purpose to set forth and illustrate in a fashion that would do good, and not evil; as I believe in Tennyson's estimate of merit, — ""Tis only noble to be good." SARAH JOSEPHA HALE. |