BY ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER APRIL 14, 1885 I. I Believe in one great first cause of all things, whether of mind or matter, soul or body-the Creator in whom we live and move and have our being as incarnated souls, and whom the nations and peoples of the earth have worshipped as the great "Sky Father" since time began. 2. I believe that the whole creation of mind and matter "groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now," and always has groaned in these travail-pains, which were and are the birth-pains into a more glorious life, even the new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, and that according to the deeds done in this body will these pains be lengthened or shortened in the life to come. "If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off;" it is better for thee to enter into spirit life maimed, than, having two hands, to go into hell (hades, or the world of spirits), into fire that never shall be quenched, "where their worm dieth not and their fire is not quenched," which means that when the spirit molecules have set toward selfishness, all the days of our incarnation, they will keep to their drift eternally, when disrobed of the flesh, except the tide be turned toward holiness by some power greater than ourselves and more loving. In the God of the Hebrew and the Christian, the Buddhist and the Mahometan alike we may recognize the all-wise, tender, brooding Mother Spirit of the Universe, under whose providential discipline, called evolution by the scientist, and fore-ordination and decrees by the theologian, all souls shall at last reach their culmination and become creators in their turn. For by the depths of the love we bear our own children, by our capacity for self-sacrifice, not only for those we love, but for those who are not our own, but only of our race or country, or even of the family of man, we may take hold of our ultimate destiny, and know for a certainty what we shall be when the ages of the future shall have wrought upon us as the ages of the past have done. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be." 3. I believe that matter, not less than spirit, is permeated by the Divine presence, which, working in all things according to the law of its being, whether material or spiritual, is bringing to pass the wonders of creation which we behold, and of whose infinity in moments of inspired vision we catch a glimpse. In all this the Eternal One would not be alone, and could not, by the very nature of benevolent being. Hence we, His offspring, are called each in our way, according to our ability, to join in this glorious work of creating a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And by so much as we join hands and hearts with the disembodied souls who have fought the good fight and finished their course here below, and hold communion with them on these great themes, we shall be mutually strengthened and encouraged in the redemptive work to which we are all consecrated, whether we know it or not, by the great, divine Over Soul whom we reverently call God. And in the end we too shall become mediators, every one, between God and man, between mind and matter, between spirit and body, like unto Jesus of Nazareth, the great teacher, prophet and prince of the later centuries. Anno Domini, the year of our Lord, we say every SELECTED BY ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER AND RECITED COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION IN CHICAGO IN 1893 EGYPTIAN-He has made all that is and without him nothing that is hath been made.— Book of the Dead, B. C. 1400. CHRISTIAN-All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. -John i. 3. JEWISH-For thou lovest all things that are and abhorrest nothing that thou hast made; for never wouldst thou have made anything if thou hadst hated it. But thou sparest all, for they are thine, oh, thou lover of souls.-Wisdom of Solomon, xi. 24. CHRISTIAN-Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.-I. John iii. 1-2. CHINESE-My doctrine is that of an all-pervading unity. Recompense unkindness with kindness and injustice with justice. What you do not wish done to yourself do not do to others.-Confucius, B. C. 551. CHRISTIAN-All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets.-Jesus Christ. BUDDHIST The water falls on all creatures, on herb, bush and tree, and each draws up to its own leaf and blossom according to its own special need. So falls the rain of the law on the many-hearted world.-Buddha, B. C. 627. CHRISTIAN-Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.-Jesus Christ. HINDOO-There is one living and true God; everlasting, without parts or passion, of infinite power, wisdom and goodness, the maker and preserver of all things. He is one and he is beyond description. His glory is so great that there can be no image of him. He is the incomprehensible spirit who illumines all and delights all; from whom all proceed; by whom they live after they are born and to whom all must return. No vision can approach him, no language can describe him, no intellectual power can comprehend him.—Vedas, B.C. 1500. CHRISTIAN-One God and father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.—Paul. HINDOO-He whose heart is pure and good, who is without pride, who loves every soul as his own, who behaves uniformly to every one with kindness, who wishes to do good and has abandoned vanity in his heart, resides with the Lord of life.—Purana, B. C. 1500. CHRISTIAN-Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.-Psalm xxiv. 3-5. MOSLEM-Every good act is charity. Giving water to the thirsty is charity. Putting the wanderer into the right path is charity. A pleasant look is charity. A man's true wealth is the good he does in the world. When he dies mortals will ask what property he has left behind him, but angels will inquire what good deeds hast thou sent before thee?—Mohammed, CHRISTIAN-I was hungry and ye gave me meat, thirsty and ye gave me drink, naked and ye clothed me, sick and in prison and ye visited me. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these ye have done it unto me. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.—Jesus Christ. CHINESE-The truly great man is he who does not lose his child heart-Mensius, B. C., 312. JEWISH The world is saved by the breath of the school children. -Talmud, B. C. CHRISTIAN-Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the A SONNET BY HOWARD ARNOLD WALTER OF NEW BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT A T CLOSE of day I knelt for evening prayer. Watched from afar and yearned me tho't to show But now the sun adown the rainbow stair Of sunset splendor slipped away; and lo! My prayer unwhispered, long into the west My gaze inclined. Upon my heart there fell No prayer ascended from my lips that night This "Autobiography" of Mark Twain is reprinted from a little pamphlet issued thirty-three years ago, found by chance by a New York book collector. So rare is it that when it was submitted for inspection to Harper & Brother, the publishers of Mark Twain's works, a representative of the house said that they had no record of it. Mark Twain himself examined the pamphlet with much interest, smiled, and said: "Yes, I believe I did write it, but I had quite forgotten all about it." The autobiography as presented herewith is reproduced by courtesy of the New York Times, having been featured in that publication some time ago. The sketches of the former Hartford humorist are also reproductions from that publication-EDITOR T WO or three persons having at different times intimated that if I would write an autobiography they would read it when they got leisure, I yield at last to this frenzied public demand and herewith tender my history. Ours is a noble old house, and stretches a long way back into antiquity. The earliest ancestor the Twains have any record of was a friend of the family by the name of Higgins. This was in the eleventh century, when our people were living in Aberdeen, County of Cork, England. Why it is that our long line has ever since borne the maternal name (except when one of them now and then took a playful refuge in an alias to avert foolishness) instead of Higgins, is a mystery which none of us has ever felt much desire to stir. It is a kind of vague, pretty romance, and we leave it alone. All the old families do that way. Arthur Twain was a man of considerable note-a solicitor on the highway in William Rufus' time. At about the age of thirty he went to one of those fine old English places of resort called Newgate, to see about something, and never returned again. While there he died suddenly. Augustus Twain seems to have made something of a stir about the year 1160. He was as full of fun as he could be, and used to take his old sabre and sharpen it up, and get night, and stick it through people as they went by, to see them jump. He was a born humorist. But he got to going too far with it, and the first time he was found stripping one of these parties the authorities removed one end of him and put it upon a nice high place on Temple Bar, where it could contemplate the people and have a good time. He never liked any situation so much or stuck to it so long. Then for the next two hundred years the family tree shows a succession of soldiers-noble, highspirited fellows, who always went into battle singing, right behind the army and always went out a-whooping, right ahead of it. This is a scathing rebuke to old dead Froissart's poor witticism that our family tree never had but one limb on it, and that that one stuck out at right angles, and bore fruit winter and summer. Early in the fifteenth century we have Beau Twain, called "the Scholar." He wrote a beautiful, beautiful hand. And he could imitate anybody's hand so closely that it was enough to make a person laugh his head off to see it. He had infinite sport with his talent. But by and by he took a contract to break stone for a road, and the roughness of the work spoiled his hand. Still, he enjoyed life all the time he was in the stone business, which, with inconsiderable intervals, was some forty-two years. In |