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Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe

Creator:  (editor)
Date: 1909
Publisher: Dana Estes & Company, Boston
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 1

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'Because his body was very sick and died, and soul cannot stay in dead body.' After a minute she said, 'is breath dead? is blood dead? your horse died, where is his soul? 'I was obliged to give a very unsatisfactory answer that animals have no souls. She said, 'cat does kill a mouse, why? has she got soul? 'Ans. 'Animals do not know about souls, they do not think like us.' At this moment a fly alighted upon her hand, and she said, 'have flies souls?' I said no. 'Why did not God give them souls?' Alas for the poverty of her language, I could hardly make her understand how much of life and happiness God bestows even upon a little fly!

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"Soon she said, 'can God see, has He eyes?' I replied by asking her, 'can you see your mother in Hanover?' 'No!' 'but,' said I,' you can see her with your mind, you can think about her and love her.' 'Yes,' said she; 'so,' replied I, 'God can see you and all people and know all they do; and He thinks about them and loves them, and He will love you and all people if they are gentle and kind and good, and love one another.' 'Can He be angry? 'said she; 'No! He can be sorry, because He loves all folks, and grieves when they do wrong.' 'Can He cry? 'said she. 'No! the body cries because the soul is sad, but God has no body.' I then tried to make her think of her spiritual existence as separate from her bodily one; but she seemed to dislike to do so, and said eagerly, 'I shall not die;' some would have said she referred to her soul, but she did not, she was shrinking at the thought of physical death, and I turned the conversation. I could not have the heart to give the poor child the baneful knowledge before I prepared the antidote. It seems to me that she needs not the fear of death to keep her in the path of goodness.

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"It would have been exceedingly gratifying to be able to announce a more perfect development of those moral qualities on which true religion is founded; but it was hardly to have been expected; those qualities are among the last to develop themselves, and are of tardy growth; we could have forced them out perhaps by artificial culture, but that would have been to obtain a hothouse plant instead of the simple and natural one that is every day putting forth new beauties to our sight. It is but thirteen years since Laura was born; she has hardly lived half that number, yet in that time what an important mission has she fulfilled! how much has she done for herself, how much has she taught others! deprived of most of the varied stimuli furnished by the senses, and fed by the scantiest crumbs of knowledge, her soul has nevertheless put forth buds of the brightest virtues, and given indication of its pure origin, and its high destination."

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In March, 1844, Laura wrote my father, who was then abroad, asking him to tell her "about God and heaven and souls and many questions."

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He replied as follows:

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"My DEAR LITTLE LAURA: -- Mrs. Howe has a sweet little baby; it is a little girl. We shall call her Julia. She is very smooth and soft and nice; she does not cry much, and we love her very, very much. You love her too, I think, do you not? But you never felt of her and she never kissed you; how can you love her? It is not your hands, nor your body, nor your head, which loves her and loves me, but your soul. If your hand were to be cut off, you would love me the same; so it is not the body which loves. Nobody knows what the soul is, but we know that it is not the body, and cannot be hurt like the body; and when the body dies the soul cannot die. You ask me in your letter a great many things about the soul, and about God; but, my dear little girl, it would take very much time and very many sheets of paper to tell you all I think about it, and I am very busy with taking care of my dear wife; but I shall try to tell you a little, and you must wait until I come home in June, and we will talk very much about all these things. You have been angry a few times and you have known others to be angry, and you know what I mean by anger; you love me and many friends, and you know what I mean by love. When I say there is a spirit of love in the world, I mean that good people love each other; but you cannot feel the spirit of love with your fingers; it has no shape nor body; it is not in one place more than another; yet wherever there are good people there is a spirit of love. God is a spirit; the spirit of love. If you go into a house and the children tell you that their father whips them; if the house is cold and dirty, and everybody is sad and frightened because the father is bad and angry and cruel, you will know the father has no spirit of love. You never felt of him, you never had him strike you, you do not know what man he is, and yet you know that he has not the spirit of love, -- that is, he is not a good kind father. If you go into another house, and the children are all warm and well fed and well taught, and are very happy, and everybody tells you that the father did all this and made them happy, then you know he has the spirit of love. You never saw him, and yet you know certainly that he is good; and you may say that the spirit of love reigns in the house. Now my dear child, I go all about in this great world, and I see it filled with beautiful things; and there are a great many millions of people; and there is food for them, and fire for them, and clothes for them; and they can be happy if they have a mind to be and if they love each other. All this world, and all these people, and all the animals, and all things were made by God. He is not a man nor like a man; I cannot see Him or feel Him, any more than you saw and felt the good father of that family; but I know that He has the spirit of love, because He too provided everything to make all the people happy. God wants everybody to be happy all the time, -- every day, Sundays and all, and to love one another; and if they love one another they will be happy; and when their bodies die, their souls will live on and be happy, and then they will know more about God.

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