[Boston—Tuesday, 19 March 1867]

Tuesday March 19. Snowdrops were here one month ago to be sure! We saw them one warm Sunday in February, when we walked to Roxbury to church growing in the front yard of one of those old-fashioned wooden houses which are still happily overlooked by the speculators in building who make it their unlovely occupation to root out all the antique buildings much as a fashionable gardener does the dear old fashioned scraggly plants which we have loved from childhood in some half decayed garden. It is very well to have things tidy, but let us not tidy away all that makes life suggestive to us both of the past and future, that dim future which our healthy young life of New England tries to hide the thought of by clearing away every hint of death even the natural leaves which drop so gently in the autumn on well-swept garden walks. So we are grateful for the old houses still standing on what was called of old “the neck” and for the ancient beds of snowdrops which encourage us so sweetly as to the coming of Spring. Now the weather is bitterly cold again and the ground covered with snow, but we remember that the snowdrops have been and Spring is here though with her face veiled.

Next week our brother & sister go to Europe for six months. They leave a family of six children behind them and pressing business responsibilities so it would appear as if the benefits of travel must be lessened in their case. But there are many reasons which induce people to think a visit to Europe indispensable. In the first place the plan of life is wrong which they adopt—wrong not from any thought of mine but from the fact that exhaustion succeeds the days work, and absolute rest becomes necessary & change, secondly the idea that a flying trip across the continent will instruct with regard to the refinements of life and in fact will prove an education, seems to besiege & possess the minds of Americans.

As for the change it is doubtless beneficial to persons worn with the grooves which the cares of a large and fashionable household impose—but as far as education goes, if one sees nobody but hotel keepers, places, and conductours the result is not so great as might be anticipated. Yet in the end great good will accrue to the country for persons who have travelled in Europe will no longer submit to the horrors & discomforts of travelling in America without an attempt at something better, especially since it is the rich and influential portion of the community who chiefly go to Europe. And although the plan of life may be wrong, the difficulty of righting it, to persons of average intelligence, when it would imply a plan of action entirely opposite to that of persons around them, is too great to be surmounted.

Today a bright clear sky. We expect the J.P. Quincys & Mr Higginson to dinner—indeed every evening this week is occupied—especially with L. who is off so soon.


National Endowment for the Humanities - Logo

Editorial work on The Brownings’ Correspondence is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This website was last updated on 3-29-2024.

Copyright © 2024 Wedgestone Press. All rights reserved.

Back To Top