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THE OUTLOOK FROM HER GRAVE

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highest abundance of bloom, and the newest leaves on all the trees out in their most perfect and various verdure. Life seems uppermost everywhere. But, after all, what is it? Only an alternation, a constant succession, as we feel this day, first life, then death; and these changes, and this particular change which so affects us at this moment, means immortality, and nothing else."

And with these last words of my dear brother Joseph about our mother, I may well close this imperfect record of a noble life. Not as an example have I wished to set that life before you, my dear girls; for the temperament and the circumstances and the destiny of each child of earth are his own, and not another's. But the retrospect of the good lives to whom we owe our own existence exalts our aspiration and our gratitude, and excites our sympathy. Like Mrs. Southey's old family portraits, they look down on us from the past,—

"Daughter, they softly say,

Peace to thy heart!

We too, O daughter,

Have been as thou art:

Hope lifted, doubt depressed,
Secing in part;

Tried, troubled, tempted,

Sustained as thou art:

Our God is thy God,

What He willeth is best;

Trust Him as we trusted,

Then rest, as we rest."

As a child standing on the shore of a river throws

in his little pebble, and with delighted wonder sees its ever-widening circle reach the opposite shore, so might those who have gone before us rejoice to know how each good deed of theirs had left a widening circle in our lives.

APPENDIX.

W'

HEN I began to write this life of my mother, I wrote to many carly friends for any letters they might have retained of hers, and any recollections they might have of her. The letters I received in answer were so cordial and kind, that I have added some of them in these pages. Within a few hours after my mother's death was made known, the short but expressive notice of the event by James Thayer appeared in the "Boston Daily Advertiser," which is appended below; and, within a few months of her death, Mr. Rufus Ellis, in the article called "Random Readings," in the "Monthly Religious Magazine," embodied some of his reminiscences of her later life, which have recalled her vividly and delightfully to many hearts.

To my friend, Mr. William Greene, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks for his long and careful preservation of my mother's letters to my Cousin Abby, and for his great kindness in giving them to me, and for the cordial words accompanying this invaluable package. In his letter to me, he writes:

EAST GREENWICH, June 14, 1875.

I beg to say that I heartily sympathize with you in your pious undertaking. I hold your mother's memory, and your father's too, in the highest veneration, as I held them in their lives in the warmest affection. You cannot say too much good of either of them.

I cannot help also mentioning here that my dear old friend, Mr. David Lee Child, who passed from earth last winter, was about to write a sketch of my mother that must have been most interesting, from his vivid appreciation and warm recollections of her. His society was for many years a rare pleasure to her, and she quoted his wise and witty sayings with delight. One expression of his which she used for years after, on various occasions, is often recalled to me by her satisfaction in it. She had asked him about the political events of the day which had disturbed her, and his answer was: "Oh, Mrs. Lyman, when things are in a transition state, there's a great deal of eccentric action."

One other dear friend, who had the deepest and truest understanding of her character, would gladly have written a fitting memorial of her. I quote from her warm and appreciative letter.

EXETER, N.II., July 21, 1874.

I loved your mother dearly; I mourned for her with sincere grief. First her eclipse, then her death, caused a great void in my life. Her place has never been filled for me. Standing on my own feet so much in youth, and having so much care and responsibility, you can comprehend how I reposed in the all-embracing affluence of her nature, and how all chills and shivers were dispelled, while basking in her sunshine.

At the time of your mother's death, I longed for some sufficient testimonial to so large a life. I shall take the deepest interest in your memorial.

Yours very affectionately,

H. C. STEARNS.

The published notices of my mother, to which I have

referred, are here added.

HER INFLUENCE ON NORTHAMPTON

[From the Boston Dai'y Advertiser.】

MRS. ANNE JEAN LYMAN.

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In that short list of deaths which makes every newspaper pathetic, there appeared to-day, in the "Advertiser," this notice: "May 25th, Mrs. Anne J., widow of the late Hon. Joseph Lyman, of Northampton, Mass."

It is due to the memory of a remarkable woman and to the feelings of a very wide circle of friends in this community, by whom she was admired, that something more than this should be said of the death of Mrs. Lyman.

For thirty-eight years she lived in Northampton, and gave character to that whole community. She was born in 1789, at Milton, the daughter of the Hon. E. H. Robbins. On the mother's side, she was descended from a vigorous Scotch stock-the Murrays-among whose living representatives in this city are some of our best citizens. In 1811, she was married to the Hon. Joseph Lyman, of Northampton. From that time until the year 1849, she lived with her husband and the beautiful family of children which they reared, in one house at Northampton, near the middle of the village. Judge Lyman was a man of high character and influence, and of a sweet and gracious demeanor which affected one like a benediction. Their house was the centre of wide-spread hospitality; all that was best and most cultivated in the town had there a natural home and shelter.

Mrs. Lyman was a person of a vigor of mind, a broad and strong good sense, and a quaint, idiomatic emphasis of expression which gave general currency to her opinions and her sayings. She was of a noble and impressive presence, and it was easy to believe the traditions of the beauty which had filled the town with admiration when she first came there.

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