文档介绍：A NEW ENGLAND GIRLHOOD OUTLINED FROM MEMORY
A NEW ENGLAND
GIRLHOOD OUTLINED
FROM MEMORY
By LUCY
1
A NEW ENGLAND GIRLHOOD OUTLINED FROM MEMORY
PREFACE
THE following sketch was written for the young, at the suggestion of
friends.
My audience is understood to posed of girls of all ages, and of
women who have not forgotten their girlhood. Such as have a friendly
appreciation of girls--and of those who write for them--are also e
to listen to as much of my narrative as they choose. All others are
eavesdroppers, and, of course, have no right to critise.
To many, the word "autobiography" implies nothing but conceit and
egotism. But these are not necessarily its characteristics. If an apple
blossom or a ripe apple could tell its own story, it would be, still more than
its own, the story of the sunshine that smiled upon it, of the winds that
whispered to it, of the birds that sang around it, of the storms that visited it,
and of the motherly tree that held it and fed it until its petals were
unfolded and its form developed.
plete autobiography would indeed be a picture of the outer and
inner universe photographed upon one little life's consciousness. For does
not the whole world, seen and unseen
go to the making up of every human being? monest personal
history has its value when it is looked at as a part of the One Infinite Life.
Our life--which is the very best thing we have--is ours only that we may
share it with Our Father's family, at their need. If we have anything, within
us worth giving away, to withhold it is ungenerous; and we cannot look
honestly into ourselves without acknowledging with humility our debt to
the lives around us for whatever of power or beauty has been poured into
ours.
None of us can think of ourselves as entirely separate beings. Even an
autobiographer has to say "we" much oftener than "I." Indeed, there may
be more egotism in withdrawing mysteriously into one's self, than in
frankly unfolding one's l