File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Reverend Samuel Longfellow, 19 September 1848 (ab05e11d-7424-49ce-9a2c-8d4787e5df84).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-018#034

Cambridge Sep 19th /48
Dear Sam,
Your words of holy consolation fell like balm, distilled from plants of Paradise, upon my wounded heart, & have both soothed & strengthened me to bear the pain without murmuring.
God bless you for the support you have given me in the beautiful thought that I may still influence my child, still draw near to one become so holy, - yet, comforting as it is, I shrink back discouraged when I contemplate myself & her angelic purity. To unfold [p. 2] the spiritual germ, uninjured by its contact with the flesh, may be the blessed work of those within the full sunlight of God’s inspiration, but, in the attempt, what more could I hope – than to purify myself – and that, indeed, is what I trust the thought may help me to do, so that, hereafter, I may be worthy to live again with her & receive her older wisdom.
She is still an ever-present loss to me – the house & garden “paced by her blessed feet around” are so crowded with memories of her that she still lingers among them, but these memories are so [p. 3] beautiful & joyous they begin to be very happy companions to me. And tho’ my eyes are filled with tears, & my heart claims with anguish its daily joy, & the future it so fondly dwelt upon, still I am enabled to resign them to Him who gave them, & to thank Him for preserving her forever from such grief as mine The smile she wore in death reconciled me to the dark angel. I saw she could rejoice in forever.
“The room was full of angels where she lay
And when they had departed [p. 4] she was gone.’
Charley said yesterday to his nurse “Mamy you are not a good girl; you cry for sis every morning. – “Because she was so good” – “Then said he, with unconscious wisdom, “you should not cry for her.” He often talks of her being in the sky, & questions not the strangeness of the fact. So should we, with childlike faith, feel that she is rightly cared for wherever God makes her home. In his arms I leave her, and am only grateful I was so long allowed to guide her happy feet.
Life henceforth shall have a ray
Kindled ne’er to pass away,
And a Light from angel eyes
Draw us upward to the skies.
My sister is now with me & her children & mine continue well, but death has been knocking [p. 5] at [crossed out: two] many of our neighbours’ doors, entering [crossed out: I should] the two opposite us, to lead away a young woman from one & Read’s little boy from the other, - and last year so near us upon the other side! When he first enters a house he throws so long a shadow, that at first I saw it darkening upon the faces of my other children, but, tho’ henceforth I can never call them mine, I shall endeavor not to destroy my present enjoyment of them by undue anxiety.
I have just lost a very dear friend, Mrs Gorham, who was my Sunday school teacher when a child & has been a very warm friend since [p. 6] As these blessings leave us, how we value those remaining, & I cannot help telling you, dear Sam, how much you are to me as a brother & spiritual guide – with what comfort I lean upon your love & pure insight into the teaching of your Master. Be my light-bringer – my messenger from the holy mount where you receive wisdom from on high. I have great faith in your interpretations, and trust to be often helped, as now, by the manna you point out to me.
ever affly yrs
Fanny E.L.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; events; death; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1848 (1011/002.001-018); (LONG-FileUnitName)