Memories of a hostess : a chronicle of eminent friendships, drawn chiefly from the diaries of Mrs James T Fields . skell, and I wassaying how sad it was she should have made the old man,her father, suffer unto death, as she did, by telling thetale of his bad sons life, and still worse, I said, shecame out in the Athenaeum and declared that her storywas false, when she knew it was true, hoping to comfortthe old man, — I dont know, said Whittier; Iam inclined to think that was the best part of it, if herlie would have done the old man any good! After we had our long afternoon session of talk ove
Memories of a hostess : a chronicle of eminent friendships, drawn chiefly from the diaries of Mrs James T Fields . skell, and I wassaying how sad it was she should have made the old man,her father, suffer unto death, as she did, by telling thetale of his bad sons life, and still worse, I said, shecame out in the Athenaeum and declared that her storywas false, when she knew it was true, hoping to comfortthe old man, — I dont know, said Whittier; Iam inclined to think that was the best part of it, if herlie would have done the old man any good! After we had our long afternoon session of talk overEmerson and future existence and the unknowable,Celia stood up and stretched herself and said, Howgood it has been with the little song-sparrow putting inhis oar above it all! 132 MEMORIES OE A HOSTESS And what of Mrs. Fields herself, a woman of nearlyforty when this last passage was written ? For the mostpart the diary reveals her but indirectly. Yet in themidst of all her pictures of her friends, a fragment ofself-portraiture is occasionally found; and to one ofthem the reader of these pages is 7:^!>:>^ ^^a-^ --0 Proposed Dedication of Whittier s Amotigthe Hills to Mrs. Fields. In a letter to Mrs. Fields, Whittier wrote: I would like thy judgment about it. Would this do? In altered form it appears in the book. December i8, 1873. — Have been looking over Wil-helm Meister! I struck upon that marvellous pas-sage, I reverence the individual who understands dis-tinctly what he wishes; who unweariedly advances; whoknows the means conducive to his object, and can seizeand use them. How far his object may be great orlittle is the next consideration with me*; and much CONCORD AND CAMBRIDGE 133 more quite as good to the same end. It prompts meto say what I wish to do in life. Aristotle writes : Virtue is concerned with action, artwith production. The problem of life is how to harmon-ize the two—either career must accord-ing to the nature of
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