Personal sketches of recent authors . llotted space, and the group as a whole is veryremarkable. They are a typical family in some ways,and yet altogether extraordinary. Highly intelligent,well cultured for the time, sternly religious, and affec-tionate though undemonstrative,—these characteris-tics were common to all the best New England blood,but in the Beecher family there was superadded astrain of genius, which did not touch all, but raised thegeneral level of the family in the eyes of the world. The ancestors of the Beechers came early tothis country, only eighteen years after the landing
Personal sketches of recent authors . llotted space, and the group as a whole is veryremarkable. They are a typical family in some ways,and yet altogether extraordinary. Highly intelligent,well cultured for the time, sternly religious, and affec-tionate though undemonstrative,—these characteris-tics were common to all the best New England blood,but in the Beecher family there was superadded astrain of genius, which did not touch all, but raised thegeneral level of the family in the eyes of the world. The ancestors of the Beechers came early tothis country, only eighteen years after the landingof the Pilgrims from the Mayflower; and and her son John were highly respectedmembers of that early colony in New Haven. Themembers of this illustrious family had many traitsin common; love of learning, public spirit, playfultemper, and moods of deep depression, marked allthe generations of them of whom we have anyaccount. Dr. Lyman Beecher, the father of Mrs. Stowe, wasone of the best-known New England preachers of his. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. THEIT^TTDT m T T I HARRIET B EEC HER STOWE. 169 day, noted for eloquence, for faithfulness to all the ex-acting duties of his profession, for moral courage thatnever quailed when the situation became difficult, andfor a vein of poetry that ran through all his nature,alongside of the deeper vein of honest common-sensefor which he was famed. He lived very near to naturewhen a boy, and his love for all her varied phenomenalasted him through life. Mrs. Stowe once asked himif he was not afraid of the terrible thunderstormswhich broke over the fields where he was workingalone when a boy. Not I, he answered gayly. Iwished it would thunder all day; this, despite thereligious teaching of his time, which made death ahorror and a dread to so many. Their part of NewEngland was an unsettled country in those days; andhis first parish, East Hampton, Long Island, was a wildsecluded spot on the seashore, whither he took his wifesoon after hi
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectauthorsenglish, booky
