Chapter XXXIV
In the Almighty Power he placed his trust,
Through all the changing scenes of deep distress;
His fortune now is better than before;
Again the Omniscient Hand has deigned to bless.
Theodore’s father was soon in complete re-possession of his former property. The premises from which he had been driven by his creditors, were yielded up without difficulty, to which he immediately removed. He not only recovered the principal of the fortune he had lost, but the damages, with the interest; so that, although like Job, he had seen affliction, like him, his latter days were better than the beginning. Like him, he reposed faith and confidence in his Maker, who had secretly supported him in his misfortunes; and who now, like a cheering sun dispersing the surrounding gloom, again gladdened his heart with returning peace and prosperity. Wearied of the business of life, he did not again enter into its affairs, but placing his money at interest in safe hands, he lived retired on his estate.
It was also the decided choice of Theodore and Alida to reside in the country. The calm and serene pleasures of retirement were particularly interesting to both, and they were now supremely blest in each other’s society.
The parents of Theodore rejoiced at their present happiness, and took upon themselves the necessary preparations for their nuptials, which were to take place as soon as all was in readiness for this happy event.
No cross purposes stood ready to intervene, to disturb their repose or interrupt their tranquillity. It was at that season when nature was arrayed in her richest ornaments, and adorned with her sweetest fragrance. Silk-winged breezes played amidst the flowers, and birds of every description carolled their song in varying strains. The air was clear and salubrious, and the scene enchanting.
And now, reader of sensibility, indulge the pleasing sensations of thy bosom, at the approaching union of Theodore and Alida. To our hero and heroine, the rural charms of the country furnished a source of pleasing variety. Spring, with its verdant fields and flowery meads—summer, with its embowering shades—the fertility of autumn, with its yellow foliage—winter, with its hollow blasts and snowy mantle, all tended to fill their bosoms with sensations of pleasing transition.
Their religious principles were the same. They were a constant assistance to each other in the fulfilment of their pious duties, truly endeavouring to follow the life of the Redeemer, who taught by his example and practice, what he required of us. Assiduously cultivating those innate Christian principles and perfections, best calculated to promote the praise and glory of God, and whereby we may obtain the everlasting favour of that ineffable Disposer of all things, in whom we live, and move, and have our being.
But soon a mournful shade was thrown over their peaceful tranquillity and happy anticipations; and manifest was their grief, when they received the dreadful intelligence that Mr. More had committed suicide. At the news of this rash and sinful action, they were thrown into an abyss of sorrow, the painful remembrance of which, for a long time, threw a dark and melancholy cloud over their felicity.
It is to be regretted that a spirit of religion and philosophy had not been more duly exercised in the mind of Mr. More, that at length by patience and resignation, he might have been brought to see how vain and transitory are all these things; and thereby have been led to look for permanent happiness to a nobler source.
Hymn.
O Thou, Creator of my frame,
Thy righteous pow’r display;
May’st Thou direct my wand’ring ways,
Nor let me ever stray.
Thy mercy still to me impart,
And thy blest spirit give;
Kindly sustain my drooping hopes,
And all my strength revive.
Guide me by Thy protecting hand,
Incline the will to thee;
Endue me with Thy heav’nly grace,
From earth’s allurements free.
May true devotion in my breast
Still fix my thoughts on heaven;
While I the song of tribute raise,
For every blessing given.
CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE.
“Be doubly blest th’ auspicious day
The edifice was plann’d;
And may immortal gifts repay
The founder’s lib’ral hand:”
Angels with joy beheld it rise,
To train immortals for the skies.
How sweet to mark the artless throng,
To hear the ingenuous youth,
Raise with one voice the infant song,
And learn the word of truth.
“Delightful work his path to trace,
Who died to save our ruined race.”
“Now, Fancy, o’er life’s little span
Glances her busy eyes,
And sees them bear the name of man,
Industrious, good, and wise:”
Bids them each useful art employ,
Anticipates their future joy.
With ardent zeal some students may
From hence arise and shine,
To wipe the orphan’s tears away,
And heal with balm divine;
“With winning eloquence to tell,
What glories in Emmanuel dwell.”
Some of the little ones may live
To adorn their country’s name;
“Indulgent heav’n by them may give
Fresh lustre to her fame.
Some may the blessed Gospel bear,
To distant lands, and plant it there.”
And many to this favour’d spot,
On God’s eventful day,
O happy, enviable lot,
Grateful shall point and say,
“There—there—to us the bliss was given,
To seek and find the path to heaven.”
Friendship.
“Oh, give me the friend, from whose warm, faithful breast,
The sigh breathes responsive to mine;
Where my cares may obtain the soft pillow of rest,
And my sorrows may love to recline.”
Not the friend who my hours of pleasure will share,
But abide not the season of grief;
Who flies from the brow that is darken’d by care,
And the silence that looks for relief.
Not the friend who suspicious of change or of guile,
Would shrink from a confidence free;
Nor him who with fondness complacent can smile,
On the eye that looks coldly on me.
“As the mirror that’s just to each blemish or grace,
To myself will my image reflect;
But to none but myself will that image retrace,
Nor picture one absent defect.”
To myself let my friend be a mirror as true,
Thus my faults from all others conceal,
Nor ever when absent those foibles renew,
“That from heav’n and from man he should veil.”
TO MARIA.
If sense and complacence their charms combine,
To make each grace with double lustre shine—
If mind serene, and innocently gay,
Makes life compare with an unclouded day:
And piety thy guide, whose gentle pow’r,
To calm each thought, and brighten ev’ry hour;
Then thou, Maria, much esteem’d must be,
These happy traits are all combined in thee.
THE SUN.
Splendid orb of living light,
That wakes the world from silent night,
Still warm this dark opaque domain,
Thou brightest of the solar train.
“When the soft cooling show’r descends,
And to the earth its moisture lends.”
When murky clouds obscure thy way,
And part exclude thee from the day,
Ah, yet again wilt thou revive,
And o’er the globe thy lustre give;
Yet shall thy beams “from day to day,
The great Creator’s power display;”
And thy resistless radiant blaze,
“In silent fervour muse his praise.”
THE VOICE OF TIME.
Did we e’er mark the budding rose,
And see its fragrant sweets disclose,
Observe it grow from day to day,
Till full perfection crowned the spray.
Then straight we see it fade apace,
And lose each vivifying grace;
And ev’ry balmy leaf we find,
Is shortly given to the wind.
Watch, then, says Time, each hour you live,
Nor with ill deeds my spirit grieve;
From first beginning is my birth,
And for your good, ye sons of earth;
O, fill the Father’s high behest,
And lead the way to heav’nly rest;
For all below must soon decay,
And, like the rose, must pass away.
In Memory
OF
MRS. WILLIAM RICHARDS.
Where late was gladness, when the morn arose.
And cheerful musing, on the evening’s close,
Serenest pleasure dwelt with gentle sway,
And peaceful slumber closed the joyful day.
Where now, alas! affliction’s deepest sigh,
Is heard around in mournful symphony;
A mother’s tears are shed in bitter wo,
And in despondency her sorrows flow:
While sad vibrations agitate the breast,
And friendship’s voice is heard in deep distress.
’Tis past—the sigh is breathed, the tear is shed,
And Anna’s number’d with the silent dead.
She was all goodness—gen’rous was her mind,
Warm with benevolence to human kind:
O’er the dark mind to pour instruction’s ray,
And lead the ignorant in wisdom’s way;
With patient zeal the Christian’s path to smooth,
And wide diffuse the genial light of truth.
One lonely bosom breathes a deeper sigh,
Connected by a near, and dearer tie:
With him she trod the late delightful road;
For him her heart with friendly fervour glow’d.
He’ll ne’er forget how many social hours
Derived new joy from her soft, soothing pow’rs.
Can he upon the scenes look back unmoved,
When pious converse still the hours improved;
While fancy, led by hope, the theme pursued,
And future happiness in prospect view’d.
Fancy, where now are thy illusive dreams?
Faded thy visions bright, with golden gleams;
Friendship, thy hope’s, untimely fled away,
And this the last sad tribute we can pay.
Our loss demands—receives the mournful strain,
Let sounds of triumph celebrate her gain;
The spirit ’scaping from its bonds of clay,
Traces, with angel guides, the lucid way;
Exalted notes from harps celestial rise,
And kindred spirits hail her to the skies.
INVOCATION TO PRAYER.
Morning.
To prayer, to prayer; for the morning breaks,
And earth in her Maker’s smile awakes.
His light is on all, below and above;
The light of gladness, and life, and love;
Oh, then, on the breath of this early air,
Send upward the incense of grateful prayer.
Evening.
To prayer; for the glorious sun is gone,
And the gathering darkness of night comes on:
Like a curtain, from God’s kind hand it flows,
To shade the couch where his children repose;—
Then pray, while the watching stars are bright,
And give your last thoughts to the Guardian of night!
Sabbath.
To prayer; for the day that God has blest,
Comes tranquilly on with its welcome rest;
It speaks of creation’s early bloom,
It speaks of the Prince who burst the tomb.
Then summon the spirit’s exalted powers,
And devote to Heaven the hallowed hours!
Subscribers’ Names
Allison, Mr.
Allison, Miss Elizabeth,
Allison, Miss Mary,
Allison, Henry,
Alfa, John,
Alfa, Miss Victorine,
Bradford, Hersey,
Blake, Mrs. Ira,
Burke, Miss Julia A.
Brooks, Miss Margaret,
Brown, T.
Belknap, J.
Belknap, Miss Anna,
Belknap, Miss Mary,
Brown, Miss Sarah B.
Blackwell, S.
Broom, Mr.
Bosworth, Mrs. Charlotte,
Bosworth, Miss Clementina,
Clayton, Mrs. Mary,
Clayton, Miss Emma,
Covert, Miss Mary,
Clarkson, Mr.
Colgate, Miss Catharine,
Crosby, Mrs. J.
Crosby, Mrs.
Clement, Miss Elizabeth,
Clement, Mrs. Mary,
Clement, Miss Sarah E.
Clement, Miss Mary,
Collins, Charles, Governor of Rhode Island.
Douglass, N. A.
Delaplane, Mr.
Ely, Mrs. Ann,
Everson, Miss,
Everson, Mrs.
Elliott, James,
Elliott, Mrs. Elizabeth,
Foster, Miss Martha C.
Filby, T. E.
Frances, Edward,
Frances, Miss Anna,
Ferris, J.
Ferris, Miss Ann Eliza,
Ferris, Miss Amanda,
Gracie, Mrs. Anna,
Gillett, Miss Mary L.
Garretson, G. R.
Griffin, Mrs. L.
Gracie, Mrs. William,
Greenoak, Samuel,
Goodwin, Rev. F. J.
Greenwood, Mrs.
Glover, Mrs.
Glover, Miss,
Hamilton, Miss M. T.
Hazard, Rowland R.
Herriman, James, Esq.
Hatfield, Mrs.
Higby, Washington,
Higby, Mrs. Washinaton,
Hobbs, Mrs. Helen M.
Hasell, Mrs.
Hackett, Mrs.
Hawks, Rev. Doct.
Howland, Mrs. Gardenfer,
Hardenbrook, Mr.
Hardenbrook, Miss Mary,
Hasbrook, Miss Caroline,
Halsey, A.
Howard, Mr.
Howard, Miss Ellen,
Hall, Edward,
Hurlbeck, Mrs. Eliza,
Hurlbeck, Miss Maria,
Hadden, Mrs. David,
Johnson, Rev. William,
Johnson, Mrs. Mary,
Johnson, Henry,
Jones, Mrs. Ann,
King, Mrs. John,
King, Miss Ellen,
Kimber, Miss Anna,
King, Mr.
Kissam, Dr. L. H.
King, Mrs. Joseph,
Lawrence, Mrs. Elizabeth,
Lawrence, William A.
Lawrence, Mrs. Catharine,
Lawrence, Mrs. H. S.
Lamberson, Judge David,
Lawrence, Mrs. Effingham,
Lowe, Miss Amelia,
Lanius, Mrs. Henry,
Limmor, William L.
Lyman, Mr.
Lyman, Miss Rebecca,
Laidlaw, Miss Elizabeth,
Mitchell, G. G.
Mitchell, Mrs. M. E.
Mills, Mrs. Sarah,
Mitchell, Mrs. M. A.
Mitchell, Wm. Augustus,
Miller, Miss Mary L.
Mikell, Mrs. J. C.
Maxwell, Mr.
Montgomery, J.
Mitchell, Miss Rosalie A.
Mitchell, Mrs. M. A.
Nicholls, Percival,
Penington, Mrs. Ann,
Pell, L. H.
Pell, Mrs. L. H.
Prescott, W.
Quarterman, Mrs. Elizabeth,
Rider, James, Esq.
Roe, George B.
Riker, Mr.
Riker, Miss Eliza,
Rayburg, Miss Sarah,
Reeve, Lorenzo,
Sisson, Miss Caroline,
Shelton, Dr. Nathan,
Shelton, Dr. Jolm D.
Smith, John, Esq.
Sandford, William,
Sandford, Mrs. William,
Smith, John C. Esq.
Stryker, Mrs. Elizabeth,
Silliman, Miss Sarah,
Smith, Mrs. Amelia T.
Savage, Mrs. William,
Sanford, Charles,
Schoonmaker, Rev. Dr.
Schoonmaker, Miss,
Southgate, Miss Emma,
Stevenson, Mr.
Stratton, Mrs. Robert M.
Torrey, Mrs. C. C.
Trulock, Mrs. Eliza,
Vanzandt, Mrs. L. B.
Volk, Mrs. John,
Vanzandt, Mrs. Mary L.
Welling, Miss Victoria,
Warren, A.
Walkling, Mrs. Anna,
Weeks, Miss Sarah Elizabeth,
Wells, Mrs., of Brooklyn,
Watrous, Charles L.
Winter, William,
Winter, Mrs. G.
Notes on Alida
The Author
Chronology
Sources
Parallel text
The following is a little more personal than the average Transcriber’s Note. Given the nature of the book, this may be inescapable.
In classical literature, there is a form called the cento. The word does not mean a hundred of anything; it comes from the Greek word for patchwork. In its original form, the cento takes small pieces of familiar works such as the Aeneid and reassembles the segments—anywhere from a few words to two full lines—into a new text. As rearranged, the content can be anything from saints’ lives to outright obscenity.
With rare exceptions, Alida cannot be called a cento. While some borrowings involve single phrases, most range from to paragraphs to entire chapters. I (the transcriber) first stumbled across the book while searching for the originals of some quoted passages in Alonzo and Melissa. This novel turns out to have been one of Alida’s favorite sources, contributing a solid six-chapter block as well as many shorter segments. Appropriately, Alonzo and Melissa was itself pirated; its credited author did not actually write the book. Conversely, a number of other sources were formally copyrighted—sometimes in the same office where the copyright of Alida was filed.
Only about half the sources (by rough word count) have been identified. Isolated phrases—three or four significant words—were disregarded unless they were very unusual, or from a source quoted many other times. Unidentified sources include:
— most of the longer poetry
— discussions of education (female and general)
— religious material, probably from a then-new denomination such as Baptist or Methodist
— most references to the secondary character Mr. More (apparently from a single source, possibly a subplot in some other book)
If you come across a long passage that you recognize, e-mail lucy2424 at sbcglobal dot net.
Alida: The Author
One of the few things definitely known about Amelia Stratton Comfield, the author of Alida, is what she looked like in 1852, when her portrait was painted by David Rogers:
This picture has been altered to align horizontals and verticals and to highlight the two copies of Alida (on bookcase behind subject, and in her hand); this accounts for the jagged edges. At time of preparation (mid-2010), the original was online at the Smithsonian collection.
Amelia Stratton Comfield was probably related to Southern writer and educator Catherine Stratton Ladd (1808–1899), who wrote under a number of pseudonyms—including “Alida”.
Alida: Chronology
The chronology is internally consistent: that is, the passage of time based on descriptions of seasons agrees with datable external events, even in the part of the story that draws heavily on Alonzo and Melissa. The war of 1812 began in mid-1812 and ended in December 1814; evidently the news reached New York before it reached New Orleans.
1811 and earlier
Death of Alida’s mother
Alida goes to seminary in New York:
“The season was now far advanced in autumn”
1812
Alida returns home:
“The spring was advancing”
[June 1812: War declared]
Father’s birthday; Alida is sixteen
From Alonzo and Melissa:
“It was summer, and towards evening when he arrived.”
“It was the beginning of autumn”
“... and sung a requiem to departed summer”
“... the day had been uncommonly sultry for the autumnal season”
“Winter came on; it rapidly passed away.”
1813
“Spring advanced, and the marriage day was appointed.”
“Nature was adorned with the bridal ornaments of spring”
“Fleecy summer clouds...”
Theodore has not yet enlisted
“... weary summer had lapsed into the fallow arms of autumn”
After father’s remarriage:
“the cool breezes of autumn had changed to the hoarse murmuring gales of winter”
1814
“the mild and salubrious breezes of spring had succeeded to the blustering gales of winter”
Father’s birthday
[August 1814: burning of Washington]
[December 1814: Treaty of Ghent]
[December 1814-January 1815: Hartford Convention]
“... taken up their residence in the city for the winter”
1815
[January 1815: battle of New Orleans]
War is over; celebration of peace
“winter’s snow was passing from the face of nature”
“verdant scenery of spring”
“showers of April had cleared the atmosphere”
Father’s birthday
Alida leaves for tour of New York state:
“The summer was past its meridian”
“The number of travellers this summer were unusually great”
1816
After death of Alida’s father:
“at the commencement of the ensuing spring”
Theodore returns
Alida: Sources
Abbreviated titles of the most frequently cited works are given here in boldface. Unless otherwise noted, the quoted edition was picked simply because it was the most readily available; it may or may not have been the edition used by the author. All [sic] notations were added by the transcriber; all brackets in Alonzo and Melissa are in the original.
Sources that are used only once are identified as they occur in the text.
Non-Fiction
Karl Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach: Travels through North America, during the years 1825 and 1826. Translation published 1828. “Travels”
Chapters XXIV-XXVII inclusive, except the poetry, are taken from this book. See beginning of chapter XXIV for more information.
John Warner Barber: Interesting Events in the History of the United States... (exact title varies). First edition 1827; later editions include 1828 and 1834, with reprints of each. Details of wording point to the 1828 edition as the source.
The segments dealing with the war of 1812 are quoted extensively: “Second War with Great Britain”; the battles of Queenstown, Lake Erie, Niagara and Lake Champlain; Death of Tecumseh; the Hartford Convention; “Piracies in the West Indies”.
Nathaniel Dwight: Sketches of the lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. First Edition 1830; quotations from 1840 edition (reprint of 1830). “Lives of Signers”
Used primarily for character descriptions. Most are applied to male characters in the novel, but one passage is inserted into a description of Dolly Madison. With one exception, all selections are taken from representatives of Northern states.
Mrs. James Madison. Here quoted from The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge; the article was printed in other publications.
Some parts of this article refer to the period when James Madison was Secretary of State under Jefferson.
Much of the article quotes from the chapter on Dolly Madison in a longer work: American Academy of the Fine Arts (James Herring and James Barton Longacre), The National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans (no later than 1834).
A sketch of the life and public services of William H. Harrison, commander in chief of the North-western army during the War of 1812, &c. Many editions from 1835 and later.
Charles Phillips: Speech at Dinas Island on George Washington. Widely reprinted; the version published in the author’s Collected Speeches is different from earlier published versions quoted here.
Lindley Murray: The Power of Religion on the Mind. First edition 1836; many later editions and reprints. Quotations from 1863 (the only edition available to me).
Not a religious work but a collection of short biographies with character description. Except for the article on Job, attributions are too short to be certain; Alida may have found similar phrases in a different source.
Francis Smith Eastman: A history of the state of New York... First edition 1828; later edition (with reprints) 1831. Details of wording identify the 1831 edition (or a later one) as the source.
Fiction
By word count, Alida’s favorite source: chapters VII-XII inclusive, much of the adjoining chapters VI and XIII, most of XXXIII-XXXIV (the final two chapters), and many other passages of varying length. See beginning of chapter VI for more information.
Regina Maria Roche: The Children of the Abbey. First published 1796, reprinted throughout the following century. Quotations from 1877.
Mrs. (Mary Martha) Sherwood: The Broken Hyacinth; The Lady of the Manor.
Alida may contain other quotations from this author; most phrases are too short to be unambiguous. Mrs. Sherwood’s fiction has a strong religious element, and she seems the kind of author Amelia Comfield would have liked.
Robert Folkestone Williams: Mephistophiles in England, or the Confessions of a Prime Minister. 1835.
Alida only quotes one passage from this two-volume novel. The episode may have been reprinted in some other text, or the novel itself may have lifted it from an earlier source.
Amelia Stratton Comfield: Alida.
When all else fails, the book quotes itself. One passage appears three times.
Periodicals and Short Fiction
The New-York Weekly Magazine, Or, Miscellaneous Repository: Volume II, 1797. Reprinted as a single bound volume containing 52 8-page issues (July 1796-June 1797). “NY Weekly”
Only two volumes of this periodical, and a few issues of the third, were published; only volume II was available to me. At least 30 separate pieces are quoted in Alida, so it is likely that some unidentified sources are in volumes I or III.
Most essays were printed with minimal attribution, or none at all; some can also be found in other sources. “The Nettle and the Rose” also appears in The Blossoms of Morality (1796) and in New-York Magazine, N.S. II (1797). “On Education” is taken from the writings of Vicesimus Knox; “Detraction” is by Nathaniel Cotton.
“Amelia, or the Faithless Briton”. Here quoted from The New-York Magazine, or, Literary Repository: Vol. VI (1795); the story also appears in The Lady’s Weekly Miscellany (1810).
“The Merchant’s Daughter”. Here quoted from The American Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, 1834.
“The Story of an Unfortunate Young Lady”. Here quoted from The Lady’s Miscellany, or, Weekly visitor... Vols. 14–15 (1811)
Poetry
Most poems are quoted only once, and will be identified as they appear. The author of Alida was obviously fond of poetry, especially obscure poems found in periodicals or privately published books.
James Thomson (d. 1748): The Seasons. The work was reprinted many times. Quotations are from the 1829 Hartford edition.
There exists an 1842 edition of The Seasons which also contains Bloomfield’s Farmer’s Boy (see chapter XIV). If similar collections were published earlier, this might be the source for both poems.
In Alida, passages from The Seasons are almost always in quotation marks.
Mary (Mrs. Henry) Tighe: Psyche, with Other Poems. Quoted from 1816 London edition.
Quoted works: Verses Written at the Commencement of Spring (1802); Verses Written in Sickness (1804); A Faithful Friend is the Medicine of Life.