Mary Moody Emerson (23 Aug 1774 – 01 May 1863 | Concord MA – Concord MA) poet, author, literary family member, mentor to her nephew Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Where were thine own intellect if others had not live? There, in that old house, was born
one who was connected with my condition. Would he had dropt his fiery mantle on my
cold spirit! I never expected connections & matrimony. I was not destined to please. You
ask, how can the faculty of imagination benefit us as immortal beings! Yet, whither can
we go without it? How blind, how deaf, how inanimate with this sensitive pioneer! We
love nature – to individuate ourselves in her wildest moods; to partake of her extension,
& glow with her coulers & fly on her winds; but we love better to cast her off and rely on
that which is imperishable. I touch eternity – let me do nothing small! It would seem as
if human minds are undergoing a change that sometimes alters the climate of a country.
May the God of love & wisdom draw us so near to communion that we may be blessed.