Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/118

Rh anything. I fear that it causes them to forget for a mere show of life the beauty of that life of which Byron speaks in these glorious lines—

I have also taken the liberty of expressing this in a little preface which I have been asked to write for these productions, which are about being published. And in any case, these words of Goethe, in “Faust,” apply to all writers—

These young girls may be said as yet scarcely to have lived, known, thought enough to write of their own experience, their own faith and conviction. They write, as people sing, by the ear. It is good, it is excellent that every one should early learn to disentangle their thoughts, to express themselves well and clearly, and for this purpose are these trials of authorship commendable. But the publicity, the having them printed, the trumpeting them abroad, the rewarding them, and so on, can that also be good for the young, for any one, or for anything?

True genius will in its own way and its own time make for itself a path to praise and renown,

After having gone through the Institute, and taken breakfast with the family whose name it bears, and which